It seemed to be before you entered it.  I just mean about the Robert Jordan women thing.  You know fan vs. antifan....nevermind.

Writing men, women, dogs, aliens, or whatevers successfully all depends on motivation to me.  Men and women have fundamental differences at this level. 

Now to be clear, I personally have no idea what motivates most women.  I've been with the same one for nine years now and I still have trouble figuring out why she does things the way she does.

But when constructing my characters I tend to try to think of them from birth to whatever age they are when the reader will meet them.  Did they have a good, honorable, loving father?  This fact alone would affect a boy differently than a girl.  For a boy his father would be one of his first role models (possibly, of course a good writer could make the kid a psycho killer, but that's beside the point).  For a girl a good dad is her first idea of what a man is suppose to be like, and it will most likely affect who she chooses to date or befriend.  The same is true in the opposite for good mothers.  Now how about abusive parents, or neglectful, or depressed? 

I'm not a psychiatrist or anything.  This is just how I think parentage affects kids. 

I don't write a lot of this first stuff down.  I'd be writing for hours without getting any real writing done.  Instead I day dream as if I'm sculpting someone.  Did she have siblings?  Did he get to go to his prom?  Is he overweight? and so on
all of these things will affect personality and more importantly MOTIVATION.
Lastly keep in mind I'm an unpublished beginner too, so I'm certainly no expert.

So far when I'm feeling blocked or burnt out I tell myself to first and foremost stay positive.  Don't go getting all bummed out and thinking you're not talented or anything.  We aren't writing machines...well I'm not...and I'm will to be there are very few writers out there that aren't affected by irritating coworkers, etc.

For inspiration I ask myself if I still like the story I'm writing and the answer is almost always yes, but when it's no then I go back and find the spot that changed it for me.

But honestly I think feeling burnt out is your imagination's way of telling you it's still brewing but nothing is ready at the moment.  You've used all of the ideas its come up with so far, but there will be more.  Just relax and wait for something to float to the surface.

Thank you Kali and Kid Longshot for representing all those writers out there that do like noise while they work.  I knew there had to be plenty 'o writers who at least needed some random background noise while they write.  I remember that I needed the TV on when I was in college doing my class work.  I'm not sure what's changed from then to now, but now I need quiet.  Probably has something to do with my kids being hyper and loud all day long.  When it's finally just me at night the quiet is refreshing.

But as I always say to each his or her own.

I hate to admit it, but I do my best stuff when I'm at work. 

So you add suspense to your life while writing...interesting.  I'd like to try that but I work outside all day without access to a computer.  I carry a pad around with me in case I get any ideas, but since I don't have any supervisors I can't get caught.

What do you do when you write?  Do you have music on?  Do you only write in the morning?  Are you successful and have a carefully decorated and designed writing office (I dream of such a place....and someday I will have oh yes I will have it..) Anyway.  Personally I write graveyard shift because that's when my kids and my lady are asleep, and I like a nice quiet space.  I light a candle for some gentle light and I do not play music. 

What's your ritual?

Philliph,
I hadn't thought of the whole 2012 thing, but that definately opens up all kinds of new possibilities.  And I'm afraid humans haven't achieved level 1 quite yet (In my imaginary world anyway).  The prisoner is not human, but is in our galaxy.  I started this story last year and lost steam on it I'm not really sure why.  I planned a sort of alien goes to earth in a desperate attempt to escape from a hitman (also alien but different race).  Oh yeah and the space station is orbiting Jupiter.  It had lots of good pieces but I decided to put it on the back burner while I worked on an idea with a little more magic than tech, but I'll be sure to pull it off the shelf again and finish it.  Thanks so much for the feedback.

Hey did anyone get a chance to read my Sci Fi story?  I posted it a on September 19th but haven't heard anything from anyone about it.  I refuse to believe it is so awsome that nobody had any comments, but I think maybe it got missed in some of the conversations.  So anyway, this is me asking for everyone to go back and check it out.  Please.