Where do you write?  Where are the special nooks where you create your stories? Do you write in the quiet, or to music? Do you take a lot of breaks, or spend too much time browsing the internet?
What I want to know is, where are you and where do you get it done?
Here is where I am.
The Office. Note the essentials… aside from the flat magical device with a keyboard that controls my brain. 🙂
Water, gummi bears, whiteboard, Grit Lit book …and the window just to my right that I tend to stare out too often during spring and summer. No music, only the sound of my fingers on the keyboard.
Number Two…, when I’m sick of sitting upstairs … the kitchen affords me a bigger window, and more opportunities to gawk at everything and nothing. Big plus – closer to the fridge.
Number Three…when the weather turns warm, I sometimes move to the porch. I’ll stay out here for as long as my battery will last and the bugs stay away, … it can remind me too much of the fact I want a beer or glass of wine, however to go along with that patio/porch vibe.
Number Four…is here. The NC Mountains, near Linville. Grandfather Mountain and the Mile High Bridge …. Linville river is a two minute walk. The hundreds of years old phenomena called the Brown Mountain Lights are within 45 minutes. That whole writerly vibe really sinks in when I’m here. (That’s Kiwi there… I sure do miss her and Bella Boo. Mister has yet to have the RV experience)
Would love to have so many places at my house! Hopefully we will put on a front porch this summer and I’ll gain somewhere other than my dining room table!
It’s refreshing Jennine! I hope you get your porch – you will cuss the weatherman if he calls for rain b/c you’ll love it so much!
I write in the bedroom my daughter left behind when she moved to Brooklyn. I face a glass-fronted bookcase that my son made for me in high school shop class (though I do have a window I can rise and stand before). No music. No interruptions. (I get up at 3:30 and often earlier to write so I can have quiet and solitude.) Generally a pitcher of iced tea beside me, but no snacks.
I used to write at the dining room table (at those same early hours) until I repurposed that bedroom. I can’t write at the library, and at work I’m (technically) supposed to be working for the man though I have made notes and such there. About the only other place I can write is my little cabin in the Missouri Ozarks woods, but without electricity, my writing time is limited and I must fall back to making notes on paper.
I do find that I can sometimes squeeze in some creative work while I’m running. (I try to get in about 20 miles a week.) I’ve often worked out plot details or character development in the middle of a run. That’s satisfying.
I’ve figured out that writers can truly “write” just about anywhere. I put those four spots above as the main areas, but honestly, like you, I’ve written at the dining room table, in restaurants on a napkin, while grocery shopping (using the back of my list) and on my runs as well. And… I’ve done that very same thing…worked out plot details, etc. I only hope that no one sees when I have an epiphany of sorts, because I am quite sure there is a stupid look on my face that doesn’t quite coincide with running. 🙂
Exactly what I do. Have laptop, will travel. I get most of my longhand drafts done at the library or the coffee shop, but when I’m home working on revisions with my laptop, I’m all over the place. The change of scene seems to help jog my brain along when I get stuck.
Love your spaces. You have some beautiful options.
It’s what I love about the ole laptop…it doesn’t feel like a ball and chain when u can just pick it up and go someplace “new.” If I were at a coffee shop – or even a library – I doubt I’d get anywhere with writing because those sorts of places are almost like “live” internet browsing, you know?
Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. But it turns out that the peer pressure (I wanna look like a writer!) seems to spur me on. I get tons of work done in those environment. Makes me feel all cool and studious.
That’s funny…I’m smiling. I’d probably trip on the way out the door and ruin any perceived impressions of being either. El klutzo.
My kitchen table. Views outside, fridge, food, it’s perfect. Used to have an office upstairs until my empty nest filled with daughter, going back to school, and new husband. The office is filled with there wedding presents, the attic is filled their household stuff and so far we are having a blast. Nice to have a strong back around to shovel snow. Yeah, we got buried yesterday in 33 inches.
Nice – but views outside today might not be… I have relatives in Milford and also in Maine (Auburn). Heard you all should be clearing off what you can – considering the other storm coming. Last thing you want is a car that becomes a block of ice – or the roof to be under more weight. That wouldn’t be good…