Every writer needs to improvise. In order to write creatively a writer will have to make new and exciting connections, use their imagination, and let ideas flow. The trouble is, that many times this is much harder than it sounds. A successful or prolific writer will have a bag of tricks to get into the mood: coffee, cafe, wine, cigarettes, absinthe, a favourite place, pen, pencil, keyboard. Some of them are unhealthy and as we have seen historically, they can be incredibly destructive and unsustainable. In order to have a writing career and a life, a real writer will need to be able to tap their improvisational power, without ruining their liver or lungs.
The first and foremost rule is learn how to free write. This is the unedited flow that connects your brain’s thought process with the writing process and side steps its editing process. Don’t worry about the content - write about your childhood, the tree you can see out of your window or cheap suites for sale. The best way to get good at free writing is to do in in manageable time chunks on a regular basis. Once you have mastered it, it can be like riding a bicycle you can get rusty , but you will never forget. If you are a good typist, free writing can be really successful on a computer. If not, it is best to choose a notebook and pen, sit in a comfortable and quiet space and make yourself move your pen across the page writing words continually for at least ten minutes. It can be like meditation, if you can’t think of anything to say, write “I can’t think of anything to say”and then let your mind continue from there “I can’t think of anything to say and this makes me feel like a complete failure like the time in second grade when Mrs Kraft came to tell me off for colouring outside of the lines on the is stupid star like drawing thing that we were supposed to be doing…."The most important thing is to learn how to shut off the part of the brain that censors your ideas.

Good luck!