Your writing setup

Now: A tattered and very ugly easy chair facing a battered and rusty solid metal desk which is a shade of mauve only the 1950s could have loved. The desk supports a 20" iMac with an additional 15" monitor, which is connected to a blue-tooth Apple keyboard and a touchpad mouse. There are also two very old (but fully functioning and much-loved) PowerBooks on the desk, and a set of Bose speakers so I can drown out any annoyances. Two iBook clamshells (also working) are sitting on a rickety three-legged table beside the desk, which falls over about once a day. My reference materials (mainly psychology books, a thesaurus, and a book of baby names) are perched precariously on a shelving unit behind the iMac and there's an Epson printer that doesn't work right buried somewhere under the sweaters on my dresser beside the desk. The whole mess is in my bedroom.

Unlimited funds: A much bigger bedroom (at least 30' by 40'), in a custom-built house in rural Kansas, with a heating system that actually works and huge windows with views of the midwest sky instead of the ass-end of the American Legion building. A huge antique wooden desk with an authentic pirate chest in which to keep my extra supplies. A color laser printer. A new MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air to add to my laptop collection. A huge comfortable chair which is neither ugly nor falling apart.

Ikea dining room table in my basement. My husband has his laptop at the head, I'm sprawled midway down with my desktop PC (mostly a distraction) on the left, trusty mac laptop in the middle, and sketchbook on the right. And a glass of wine, glass of water, and mug of tea wherever I can fit them.

Software I use: Write or Die. OmmWriter. Scrivener. Excel spreadsheet (for wordcount tracking).

Ideally, I'd take the setup somewhere cold with a woodburning stove and plenty of fuel. And I'd get a better chair. *wince*


Oh, my other writing set up is to take my laptop to bed and do about 500 words at bedtime while my husband saws logs.

My children and husband utilize the study in our house, so my computer system is in our master bedroom. Bad feng shui, I know, but this is where I like it. I returned to a desktop system four years ago and run Windows Media Center so my monitor doubles as a television and my CPU, a DVR. My 32" flat panel monitor definitely took some getting used to, but now when I have to do something for the kids on my old 20" widescreen, I feel like everything is so small and hard to read. LOL

However, my desk chair really blows. Big time. The two cheapy ones I bought on clearance in the study are fab compared to this big ol' hunk of crap I'm sitting in right now. I should have bought a third one when I had the chance.

Shitty tottery card table, awesome love-of-my-life-imac, itunes, coffee and coffee warmer, pens, index cards, notebook for notes. My entire life is lived in one shitty room that is a studio apartment.

When the blessed event happens, I will be in a house, with a real life desk, a comfy chair, and all of this, the desk, the comfy chair, et all will be in a room that is only for writing, not for sleeping, cooking and eating in. (ok, I have a bathroom now, and technically, that is a separate room.)

and I hope there will be a couple of German Shepherd dogs.

Right now, my setup is a sturdy desk with my PC and all sorts of cluttery bric-a-brac and a comfy chair not two feet away from hubby's 65" TV.

My dream writing space is a turret room filled with plants (which somebody else would water), a laptop, and an overstuffed recliner.

Chasing the Horizon said:

Now: Two iBook clamshells (also working) are sitting on a rickety three-legged table beside the desk, which falls over about once a day.

Click to expand...

Your writing setup is amongst the most colorful and funny described in this thread.
Question: What is an iBook clamshell?

I refrain from asking what a PowerBook is (or a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air), fearing to expose the shameful fact that I didn't do my homework. This TechnoLand is, to me, a Wonderland!

Your Epson reminds me of mine -- gathering dust in a corner, waiting for the trash-man. I do my printouts in a Kinko (or whatever is called now) office near my workplace.

Adagio

Just now I write at my little desk in my bedroom. Laptop or paper. Music is optional, though I usually have my iPod plugged in.

Ideally? A little cottage looking out over the ocean, preferably with open windows so I could hear the tide coming in and out.