As the original poster here of the downhill slope, I officially feel warm and fuzzy. (the idea and term, are not mine originally, however. Check out Bolker's _Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day_)

This book is worth another mention:

Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-What-You-Came-Students/dp/0374524777/

I've read this suggestion before and I know it works for a lot of people, whether they're writing fiction or nonfiction.

In my case, I write fiction (novels and screenplays) and I find it doesn't help me at all. If I get interrupted while writing, sometimes I lose my total train of thought, the mood, the "presence" of the world I'm writing about, and don't get it back for a long time. So stopping w/o finishing accomplishes the same difficulty -- on purpose.

For me, "writing on a downhill slope" might best be described as creating a Pavlov's dog/music state. I discovered this first when I was writing a script that all takes place on Christmas Eve. Whether it was December, February or July I could put on headphones and pop in a Christmas CD and my world would suddenly be there.

Since then I've tried to find a particular type of music to recreate the world I'm writing about, or even a "soundtrack" in my head, so that when I put on a certain song I feel the mood of a certain scene or character.

Yes, I should have mentioned that I'm working on a piece of nonfiction, with lots of research, interviews and such. I can pretty much stop and pick up wherever I want because much of it is a matter of putting my notes into prose.

I can see that it would help a lot in that case. I almost drew the distinction between fiction and nonficion writing -- but then recalled that I've also heard fiction writers recommend the same technique, so clearly it varies between individuals!

P.S. Sometimes "parking downhill" is simply typing a few words/images/ideas that will spark you when you sit down the next day. Not "stopping in the middle of a sentence," but seeding the page with something to trigger your muse.

As someone who usually has a few ideas for fiction rattling around in my head, you just put to words something that I hadn't really thought about before, but clicked with me. I find I usually have ideas for various projects while listening to music. The mood of the music definitely has an impact on the idea, and frequently, when writing a scene/chapter/etc. inspired by a piece of music, I want to try to capture the same mood I had when I was first struck by the idea.

Now I just need to make sure that in addition to writing down the idea, perhaps I make a note on the root of the inspiration as well, to try to recreate the environment, and "get into costume."

Thanks!

Perhaps off-topic for this forum, but I've been finding this useful when writing (computer) code, too.

aef

Thanks for these tips. I have trouble both at work and school (PhD student). I hope to learn to write more efficiently.

The downhill approach sounds interesting (if not counter-intuitive) and will be applying it to my technical writing at work in the coming weeks.