I personally first set the mood by playing some music, playing a visual novel that suits the tone, etc. Then I begin writing while also copiously looking at my notes for my novel. I'm curious to see other people's processes for getting the right mindset for writing.



Note: I do not mean the mood of what you're writing. Sorry if my wording is confusing.

Music helps. Music helps a lot actually.

Then it kinda changes on what mood I'm trying to get in to write the correct mood of the work.

For instance, if I'm trying to write something sad? Usually will think about my life. That isn't a joke.

If it's darker, scarier stuff? Horror movies and games. Not the awful "jump scare big monster gore everywhere" tripe. I'm talking the good stuff. Asian Horror movies and eastern europian video games....eastern europian video games also work for sad.

Happy? anime. Usually comedy or standard shonen where friendship is literally a magical power. Always fuzzy feel good and usually with making me feel cynical like a lot of modern Isekai.

Serious and clinical? Friend, nothing like books on random stuff like "Herbalism" to give you a stringent "I feel nothing but I know things" vibe

alcohol and music 

Music when faced against a blank page.

I'm always "ready" or "in the mood" to write. I love it. It's my passion.
I don't really understand why others feel compelled to "get in the mood".

Music and just generally thinking about my story and what I wanna do with it to remind myself how much I like it and how excited I am to write more of it.

Nestor1079 Wrote: I'm always "ready" or "in the mood" to write. I love it. It's my passion.
I don't really understand why others feel compelled to "get in the mood".

In my case, it's a mixture of burnout, motivation deficit, and serious issues with procrastination. The motivation thing especially, even if I like doing something, I'll have times where it's mentally taxing to make myself do that thing. Though to be fair, I've been making an effort to get better at that lately at least with my creative projects and I think I've been improving. The fact that I've stuck with my main story for nine months without missing an update day and I'm still writing plenty of chapter backlog without an issue is actually a great accomplishment for me.

I get myself into the mood for writing by telling myself that it's more fun than doing the housework.

Not as fun as having sex, but it sure beats doing the dishes. 😸

Specific songs. From very thoroughly researched bands or artists that are well versed in their craft.
I may need to listen to a tune for a month or two. Every day.
Usually, hovering around the same rhythm or tone, matching the one in the story, as I'm very particular 
Every story I've written, was worked on while 'its' song(s) were playing in the background
and has its own 'soundtrack'.
I also have certain tunes saved in lists, under war, peace, battle, love, betrayal etc, for quick inspiration.
Some chapters even in Touch O' Luck have their own music 'dressing' that was utilized there, and no where else in the book.

I have to just start. Once I’ve started, 95% of the time I’m just into it. It’s not always flow, but I’m usually just into it. 

Getting started, however, isn’t always easy. If I wake up naturally before 7am, I can usually just sit down and start in my early morning haze. Waking up after that it’s a lot hard to just pull the trigger. So I have to find different ways to talk myself into starting. 

My next experiment might be trying to program myself with a “trigger song”, something distinct that I only listen to right before beginning to write, lol.

Genuinely? I watch YouTube, and listen to music. Sometimes for only a few minutes, sometimes for hours. What I watch doesn't matter. I need to work myself into a mental state where I am mentally ready to create, and with so much music and comedy and tragedy and horror from my video feed (Vtubers, horror game lets-plays, skits, constant streams of various musical genres) stuffed into my head, I'm ready to make something of my own.

Somehow, this helps if I'm tired. When it's late and the moon is out, I can create much easier. I feel the motivation for it, too.

I write to help my mental health, so usually it's not really a case of being in the 'mood' it's more that I have to give my mind something else to focus on before it spirals

I lived with it for 20 years, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, and I wish I'd started writing a lot sooner than a year ago

Put this song on: https://youtu.be/b9Cgh8-Np6c

Set up a timer (30 minutes to write as much as we can)

Then we write.

Step 1: Think about money 
Step 2: Write like a madman
Step 3: Wait for profit

ArDeeBurger Wrote: I get myself into the mood for writing by telling myself that it's more fun than doing the housework.

Same! I usually write during class to pass the time when I'm bored 

I have a playlist for my world of course. I also have a pinterest board I look through to get in the world visually. Then I brainstorm where the story is needing to go to get to the next major plot point. I ask myself questions in a notebook about what this character is going to do to deal with x problem, what their options are, what would be the most interesting, and ways that could create more conflict or come into conflict with other characters or storylines. By the time I have some notes to work with and the atmosphere, I'm ready to go! Sometimes I would have made the notes earlier in the notebook and I can just read over them to get excited, or if I'm not hyped after reading them I continue brainstorming until something clicks. I need to splurge ideas before I start, I find it really hard to write without a destination! 

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Keep my diet. Eating a bunch of sugar is like ordering a writers block to arrive the next day. 

I think about how much work to be done, and suddenly the urge to write just comes flying right at me. I've got a paper due next week and I've written 15k today!

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I tell myself that If I don't start writing then one day I'll get up from my desk, fall over and die instantly.