How deep is your concentration when you're in the writing zone?

[meg_evonne]

I spent over five hours the other night in a writing marathon.  I usually have celtic/new age music or an old DVD going while I write.  I was so embarrassed after this highly productive session to find that I had been writing for hours to the DVD music on loop between Gray's Anatomy show selections for four hours plus. 

If anyone had been listening, I'm sure they would have been screaming their heads off at me and bashing my brains in.  Thankfully, I'm single and the dog didn't mind.

Just how deep in thought do you get when things are clicking?

[comprex]

I've been known to free-run, lose all track of days or nights, and live on nothing but coffee & bluegrass/celtic/salsa/country/randomblabtalkshow for half-weeks at a time.

[Cooper]

I try to write in all sorts of situations, but still haven't found my writing muse (ignore that last word).  Coffee shops, train, hotel lobby, bed, backseat of my car listening to Howard Stern on Sirius, jaccuzi, you name it; not including a closet which I haven't considered yet.  Still manage to write something, but not what I expect to be.

[blgarver]

Seldom do I ever get a chance from Real Life to really hit that blissful state of mind we writers often call "The Zone".  I write a lot, but I only slip into that disembodied ultra-creative state a handful of times a year, where I'm so deep in focus that I don't even see the words on the screen and my characters are telling me the story, instead of me writing a story about them.

Whenever I hit that point, nothing can drag me out of it, as far as I now.  Nothing ever has jarred me out of that zone before.  Now, I'm easily distracted, and 99 percent of the time I'm not in that fabled zone, so usually I get an hour or two into my session before RL knocks me off track.

[THETA]

When my muse grips me, i'm gone.  I can block out extreme heat, hunger, television, crowds, and personal tragedies while seriously writing.  It's a bit weird too because i can't read a book in a crowd of people, but i can easily filter out the billions of sounds made by throngs of people when i'm writing.  Maybe it's easier to immerse oneself in their own world rather than someone else's.  My parents hate it, they'll call my name close to a hundred times and when i do finally answer and do what they ask, i'm distracted and spacy.

I've got two modes while writing.  One, where my muse is kind and the paragraphs flow out like water and i'm merely distracted from the sheer pleasure of it and two, where the writing is like cutting my arm open and bleeding myself for every little word.  Obviously mode two is where i'm consciously concentrating.  Mode one is more just me basically enjoying a literary orgasm. 

[PapaBear]

Its funny that you put multi-vehicle accident as one of the choices. I've actually experienced that one. I was out writing in the garden, and apparently this car comes speeding down the hill and smashes head on into another car coming around the corner. I say apparently because I was so into the writing that I honestly didn't notice the cars hitting each other right in front of me until I looked up to take a sip of water. 

Alas, I rarely get so focused nowadays. Now every little thing will bug me and break my concentration.

[meg_evonne]

Its funny that you put multi-vehicle accident as one of the choices. I've actually experienced that one. I was out writing in the garden, and apparently this car comes speeding down the hill and smashes head on into another car coming around the corner. I say apparently because I was so into the writing that I honestly didn't notice the cars hitting each other right in front of me until I looked up to take a sip of water. 

Yes, i did include it as a joke--but obviously we have an avid writer that fits the bill!  Welcome papabear!

[dogsoldier]

Once I'm in the zone, I'm in. Until that magic "click" happens, nearby noise is a pain.

[prophet224]

Like many, I'm sure, I go back and forth.  I tend to hear most things around me, but remain fairly immersed in the writing and can go back to it pretty quickly.  I'd call it "maintaining the zone".  I also grew up reading on the school bus, in the halls, etc.  I remember how I'd walk through the halls at work reading a book, stepping around people and objects without looking up.  People found it very amusing.   I believe that translates over to writing as well... I just can't do it while walking, sadly.