WHERE WRITERS WRITE

Hi Suzan,

I usually write in my home office. However, I've been known to write in a coffee shop, the library, and while sitting on the sofa. It just depends.

I write in my home office, and this is what I see.

I mostly write on the sofa, but I also have a notebook which means I can write on the bus, in a coffee shop or wherever I happen to be. I don't have a place I prefer. I can write anywhere.

In my lounge, sometimes at the desk in my bedroom.

*I bought a three bedroom flat with the intention of using the spare room as a writing area/library. Somehow my sister turned it into a music room.

I usually write in my recliner with the laptop. I have an office, but seldom use it for anything other than a place to store all my books.
I sometimes write in the car with hubby driving.

I wrote the first draft of The Driver riding the trains and busses in Philadelphia

When I'm published and rich and all that, I'm going to Ireland to write my next book

I write whereever I can write, usually.

When I get a good idea but have nowhere to write it down, I'll make everyone around me's life miserable by repeating it to them over and over so I don't forget.

Usually, I discard "napkin writes" and quick thoughts but when I like the concept, I'll try to approach it from a different angle.

I type a LOT - to the point where I can touchtype faster than my old English teacher could type regularly...and she had won a contest for her typing speed. But that's just because it's easier to store your thoughts and revise them on a computer.

I've written on scraps of paper at a table in the supermarket coffee bar while waiting for my mother to finish shopping so I could take her home.

I've never written at the beach. That's my time to just vegitate, read, enjoy the sun and people. I do get great ideas there though.

Suzan said:

Do you have a favorite place where your words just seem to flow or are you able to write almost anywhere?

Click to expand...

I write in my home office facing a wall plastered with pictures, photos and diagrams related to my WIP. My words flow best when I've just finished sharpening about a dozen pencils. I write all my first drafts in pencil and the smell of the pencils gets my creative juices going.

98% of all my writing takes place at my desk. 2% happens when writer's block visits me, so I just grab a notebook and a pen and wander off.

Had I the same view you had from that chair though, I bet I would never have a shortage of inspiration.

i lay in bed and write. its easier for me to have the tv on in the background and chilling. relaxing makes the creatuve juices flow.

I write in a couple of different places.

I write during my lunch hour in my cube at work (on my iPad rather than the company computer).

Usually there's one weekend day where I head out to the cafe in the Borders bookstore near my house and I write for a couple of hours.

I also write on my couch at home after work, but mostly because if I stretch out my legs I can convince the cats to lay on my legs and not my arms.

I usually write at the dining room table, which, at my house, is in the bottom half of the Western tower. My daughter likes to bring in her toys and play there, for some reason, so it makes things easy--I can keep an eye on her while I work. Changing my position changes my view considerably--there's three windows facing three different directions, or if I put my back to the windows, I'm looking at the kitchen. My last novel has a lot of kitchen scenes. Go figure.

ETA: Here's a photo of my dining room. I dunno if you need facebook to view it...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=153333238036126&set=a.127270280642422.9606.100000783513442

I generally lug my laptop around the house with with me, usually while it's open and connected to the internet, so I write in my daughter's room, in my room, upstairs, outside, all over the place. But almost all of my writing takes place at home, and almost exclusively when it's only me and my youngest child--unless it's the weekend and my hubby can help manage everything else.

When I'm laptopless, I often end up writing in crayon. Hey, what can I say, I'm a mom. Sometimes, when I'm outside, I end up writing notes to myself in the dirt...they don't stay long, but taking the time to write things down helps me to remember them.

But I have serious pencil-and-paper (or, in my case, crayon) block. I revise constantly as I write, moving sentences all over the place, rewording, altering, then putting things back again. My attempts on paper end up looking like a huge scribbled and scratched out mess. So much so that I generally won't write when my laptop isn't available.

I find I write best at a desk or table. However, my favorite place to write is outside.

I actually change the space where I write quite regularly so I don't get bored. In the summer, i will write on my deck as often as the weather will allow. Otherwise I have two desks that I work from, and I've also been known to write at the kitchen table, coffee shops, the library, wherever I can.

I write best either laying on my bed with my laptop or on the sofa with the TV on. Either way, I have to have some kind of background noise.

Suzan said:

I've never tried to write on a beach with the ocean roaring, but would like to try that one day while sipping something with an umbrella in it : ) Hey, may as well dream, right?

Click to expand...

Writing on the beach is seriously overrated. I tired once and found that no matter how hard i tired i kept getting sand all over my copybook and pen tip that caused it not to write. But i'm bias because i hate the beach.

me i love sitting in my house on the couch late at night when everyone else is asleep, and playing music.

I work and write (not necessarily the same thing) wherever I have my laptop. I travel pretty extensively for work so "wherever" takes in a lot of places, including some trains and lots of planes. I find that as I've gotten older, I work better in quiet spaces.

amlptj said:

______ on the beach is seriously overrated. I tired once and found that no matter how hard i tired i kept getting sand all over my _____

Click to expand...

This is also true.

I write in my bedroom, on the bed. I have a desk, but it's usually cluttered, and the bed is more comfortable. The rest of the house is too noisy for me to try to write in, so I stay in my room. I write mostly at night, because I have to work in the day.

No, hubby, so the left side of my bed always has notebooks, pens, and books on it. I use my laptop most of the time, unless I get an idea at work or something.

Once, I took my younger brother to the doctor, I wrote half of a chapter in the car on napkins. And I wrote three pages worth on blank receipt paper at work.

Most of the time I write in my bedroom, but I can write anywhere the inspiration happens to strike me.

Near a window, always. I need to be able to look up and see trees or sky. (And never with my back to an open door!)

I carry my laptop around the house, wherever the sun is, that's where I am. (I sometimes have to angle the laptop to get rid of the glare.) I have a summer cottage (very small, which my short stories help maintain), and I love to write on the porch: big, wrap-around windows. Sometimes I write out there at night in the dark and forget to close the blinds. People walking by can look in and see the glow of my PC. They think I'm odd.

If you're stuck in your writing, try moving to a diff. location in your house, flat or whatever. They say this helps kids working on homework; move around, don't stay in one spot. Maybe it works for writers, too.

When bad weather sits in, I write in my home office. In good weather, I write out in the woods, sometimes camping for a week out there. I also write at the library, at the park, or wherever looks good. I've rented hotel rooms in order to write, and I've spent a month in primitive cabin writing.

I love writing at the beach, but since the nearest beach is eight hundred miles from where I live, I don't get there very often.

But my favorite place to write has to be on a boat. I've spent time writing on both a houseboat and a converted tugboat on the Ohio River. I'd live on one of these, if I could.

I suppose the weirdest thing I've ever written with or on is a story I wrote using a homemade goose feather quill, using ink and paper I made myself. I've also used these thing when writing by candlelight and kerosene lamp.