Dreamer, Maker, Critic

Dreamer - I can be alone or in a crowd. Solitude is not necessary in fact sometimes this can distract. I need to be at a point whereby i am listening but not hearing. The listening can be to a person in real life, the sea, a film. This seems to lull me into a sense whereby i'm not consiously trying to dream hence the dreams feel free to emerge. EDIT - just got to the description of Flow in the workbook. Part of Flow is my Dreamer state - loss of self-consciousness, distorted sense of time, effortless. The othere traits of Flow - conecntration, balance, control, reward come under the Maker for me - in addition to the above two.

Maker - This changes depending on the medium. With scripts I create individual scenes to get a sense of character. Then I plot ahead creating the bare bones of the story. With stories I just write, then enter the Critic stage almost simultanously. Initial ideas are alays on pen and paper. All this is in solitude with NO DISTRACTIONS. Very hard as i have young children. Coffee is a must.

Critic - I actually enjoy the critic stage especially with scripts. With these I follow the maxim of enter a scene late and leave early. I get a perverse sense of joy at this mutilation, knowing, however, that it makes the work tighter. Initial changes are pencil on the script itself, which i then print and check against the revisions. With stories i edit as soon as i reach a sentance i dont like. Very much a rolling process. Then i go back and toighten things upo. With any prose i read the dialogue outload myself or, ideally, with actors.