Anybody have any good strategies to share?

I'm a night owl, so I start writing at 8pm and finish when a) I have 2k worth of words or if I manage to get that done early than b) when I start to nod off at the chair. So far it's worked pretty well. The first night I managed 3,500 words, the second night just over 2,000 and the third night 3,000 or so. The only thing that sucks is that I don't get to update my numbers until the next day so I'm about a day behind in my numbers in comparison to everyone else.

Music is another helpful factor. I have a pile of CDs that fit the mood of the story and I just push one in according the scene I want to write and the character of that scene. So far I haven't made it to the Sublime Gold CDs but Rob Zombie, Collective Soul and Fuel have had most of the playtime. Last night I was writing a bit of a moody somber scene, so Louis Armstrong took center stage for a while. I also find the beats help to keep my fingers going. Silence or the screams of my children are too jarring to work around which is another reason the night time writing has been working well. They're in bed unless my newborn decides not to go back to sleep between nighttime feedings. The its daddy to the rescue complete with the uncanny power to elicit burps, change diapers and soothe a grumpy baby back to sleep. Then the writing gets put on hold for an hour or so.

I do most of my research during the day, reading in what time I have between making meals and chasing the rugrats around, which usually amounts to locking myself in the bathroom for some momentary quiet. Then I keep those books handy in case I need some quick facts during typing. I do my best to absorb most of the info during the day though so I don't waste writing time at night chasing something down.

The other strategy is to just type. So lets go people before I flail your skin with metal tipped leather!

Write horror from the heart, where all the darkest things grow