Where you Write

PeeDee · Apr 4, 2007

Or perhaps, where you want to write.

This really caught my attention in a recent Neil Gaiman interview that I'm reading.

Phantastik-Couch: Do you like writing in other places than home?

Neil Gaiman: Yes, if it’s places I haven’t been to. I like writing at places where it’s slightly uncomfortable for me. Like in a place where you don’t want to really go to, in a hotel that’s not too nice. Because if it’s too nice, you’re enjoying the hotel instead of writing. One of the things I always fantasize about is writing on one of those big merchant ships, most of them have one passenger cabin. Just going on one of those ships, signing up for a four-month journey, sit in the cabin and write a novel. I just love that idea, before I die I want to do that.

I read the part in bold (not the "Phantastick-Couch" and not "Neil Gaiman," the other part in bold; try to keep up) and I was flabbergasted. What a GREAT idea! It combines my love of water with my love of boats, with my writing.

So suddenly, I think this is the greatest idea in the world, which means if I DID do it, I probably wouldn't get a novel written. I'd do all sorts of other stuff.

I get pages and pages written on grotty Greyhound bus trips, and very little written on clean, comfy, enjoyable airplane flights.

What about you. when you're not at home, what gets you writing, and what stops you writing? And where do you fantasize about writing, even if it's outlandish (like the Merchant ship idea)?

scarletpeaches · Apr 4, 2007

Arthur's Seat.

Writer2011 · Apr 4, 2007

I write at home in my chair with my laptop....generally I'll have some kind of background noise such as T.V. or listening to music...

Jennifer L · Apr 4, 2007

I am so unoriginal I write at the coffee shop. *hangs head in shame*

Do I redeem myself if I swear it's not Starbucks?

Writer2011 · Apr 4, 2007

Jennifer L said:
I am so unoriginal I write at the coffee shop. *hangs head in shame*

Do I redeem myself if I swear it's not Starbucks?

Yes you do Jennifer... you are redeemed

Just kidding

scarletpeaches · Apr 4, 2007

Okay I just mentioned where I'd LIKE to write. But where do I write in reality? At home. On my settee. Boring.

Jersey Chick · Apr 4, 2007

When we had our basement finished a few years ago, I had a small (and I do mean small ) office built. I call it the cave, because it's small, and I have a tendancy to write with the lights off and just a candle burning. It's a mess of books and papers and everything, but it's the only place in the house that is solely mine and I love it. I have my laptop, printer, music, and candles and it's all mine - hee hee...

Arisa81 · Apr 4, 2007

I only write at home, in one of three places: the computer, the couch or the kitchen table. Depends on my mood.
I have a balcony and I've often thought about writing out there, but it's just so exposed. There is no privacy whatsoever. Now, if I had my own home and a backyard, that would be my dream. Pretty private. Set up a table outside and write there for hours, especially on the lovely sunny days.
Something I have always wanted is a cozy cottage style home. I've always seen myself writing there. Maybe one day!

PeeDee · Apr 4, 2007

Where I write is, in theory, my "office," which is actually a small walk-in closet by the front door, which I share with the coats and shoes of the family. My desk used to be a big mammoth corner desk, but I smashed it up and threw it away. My desk now is two folding tray-tables set in the corner at an angle to each other, with a tall blocky wood thing between the two of them, on which I set a lamp.

I set on a folding chair.

That's my office.

It's the best office I ever had.

But these days, I tend to write in the living room, at the main computer (where I am now) because the air flow is a little better, until I find a small fan for the office-closet.

...but the bit of my original question I'm more interested in is the where looney place do you DREAM of going to write? Because now I'm hung up on spending four months at sea, writing away (maybe on a typewriter, oooh) and I wonder what you all daydream about.

scarletpeaches · Apr 4, 2007

I'd love to write while lounging in a big ol' bed. A HUGE bed. A bed bigger than the room I now call 'bedroom'. Covered in loadsa duvets and pillows and cushions.

I love my bed.

But where is my fantasy bed? I don't know. Probably in Italy somewhere, near French (in Italy???) windows which open onto a balcony with a magnificent view of Florence.

But it's definitely a bed.

davids · Apr 4, 2007

I wrote my first book sitting in various hotel rooms-they were wonderful rooms full of all the amenities which I don't give a shit about as I spent around 265 days a year on the road in my previous life-so hotel rooms or suites lose their harumph as do the cities and etc etc. I write on my boat in the harbor-my dog burty edits my shit and we bark at bekini clad harlots-it is a hell of a boat as well-Hic!

Haggis · Apr 4, 2007

I write at a computer. Any computer. Don't give me a damn typewriter, and don't expect me to write longhand. I'd never be able to read the scribbles.

Editing's a different thing. I print it out and take it to the bar with me.

Trust me. It's the only way.

ChaosTitan · Apr 4, 2007

I kind of want a place like Johnny Depp had in "Secret Window." A small cabin somewhere remote, with a loft for my office. No secret gardens or imaginary stalkers, thank you, but definitely within walking distance of a lake. Lots of trees, fresh air, maybe a few deer.

Paradise.

JeanneTGC · Apr 4, 2007

I'm with Haggis (don't faint).

I need a computer, and I'd prefer it to be the one in my office, aka The Cage, but I'll use any computer possible. I hate longhand. I can read it, but copying it back into the computer feels like doing double work for nothing. I need music blasting to write, and it's specific (somewhat) to each WIP, so I wouldn't inflict that on others. I can write on my Palm or laptop if I have my iPod with me, but usually by the time I'm all set up it's time to go or the flight gets bumpy, and so that rarely works.

I edit on the computer or with a printout somewhere in the house.

How would I LIKE to do it? I'd like the ideas, words and images in my brain to somehow fling themselves properly onto paper AS I think them, versus this messy, and so-much-slower typing thing I have to do now.

I don't want to be somewhere "else". I'm in enough other places in my head that I sort of need the anchor to home/reality to get things straight.

Anonymisty · Apr 4, 2007

aspiringwriter said:
I write at home in my chair with my laptop....generally I'll have some kind of background noise such as T.V. or listening to music...

I think you're me! I sit in a hideous (yet comfortable) orange wingback chair, positioned so I can't see the TV, and work on my laptop which sits on a tray table.

I dream of buying a writing desk...

Anonymisty · Apr 4, 2007

PeeDee said:
...but the bit of my original question I'm more interested in is the where looney place do you DREAM of going to write? Because now I'm hung up on spending four months at sea, writing away (maybe on a typewriter, oooh) and I wonder what you all daydream about.

I dream about sitting at an antique writing desk, one made of some dark and shining wood, with all the nifty cubbies and shelves.

In London. *grin*

Pat~ · Apr 4, 2007

I'm with you, PeeDee. I think it'd be great to go on a long cruise, and write out on the deck--or the balcony of the stateroom. I love cruises; there's a never-ending source of people/travel material to write about, too.

Right now my favorite places to write are with my laptop 1) in bed 2) in the big comfy double chair, or 3) my favorite--our backyard balcony, overlooking a neighbor's 5000-acre ranch.

Haggis · Apr 4, 2007

JeanneTGC said:
I'm with Haggis (don't faint).

PeeDee · Apr 4, 2007

Anonymisty said:
I dream about sitting at an antique writing desk, one made of some dark and shining wood, with all the nifty cubbies and shelves.

In London. *grin*

The funny thing was, I dreamed of getting that big gorgeous expensive heavy monster of a corner desk for years. And then I got it, as a wedding present. I had it for two years, and I was happier than anything to get rid of it and go write in a coat closet.

I like writing in places I'm a bit uncomfortable. The smelly back seat of a Greyhoud bus. A grotty hotel room. The dingy cabin on a merchant ship. You get the idea.

The more I think about this, the more I realize that when I go out to the nature reserve to write, I wind up just having a long, long wonderful walk, and doing no more than a half dozen half-hearted words in a notebook. Usually likewise, in a prestine and peaceful library.

I write in busy busy coffee shops, because the noise and the bustle and the chaos is, in a way, mentally the same as the grotty hotel room, the Greyhound bus.

PeeDee · Apr 4, 2007

Pat~ said:
I'm with you, PeeDee. I think it'd be great to go on a long cruise, and write out on the deck--or the balcony of the stateroom. I love cruises; there's a never-ending source of people/travel material to write about, too.

See, I think if I went on a cruise, I would get no writing at all done. I'd do a million other things.

If I went on a merchant ship of sorts, I bet I'd have a novel done when I got back.

I never really thought about this before tonight. This is fun.

san_remo_ave · Apr 4, 2007

How interesting that I was just reading a CNN article earlier today extolling just such a benefit of container ships!!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/04/04/container.ships.ap/index.html

san_remo_ave · Apr 4, 2007

I work best where there is activity around, but nothing I'm interested in. I think somehow the activity around me keeps me energized, but I tune out the distracting noise by cranking up my iPod (prerecorded music, no radios with annoying talk disruptions). For some reason, I can focus and relay the words really well.

For example, lunch time at my day job is great. Sitting in the dealership waiting room while they work on my car, that type of thing.

So, I guess I don't really dream about locations so much as having the freedom to write full time.

Pat~ · Apr 4, 2007

kpmcneil22 said:
I agree. It would have to be a merchant ship. A cruise ship sounds like a fun vacation, but I'd be too busy and distracted to write. On a merchant ship, you still have the great view, but you don't have all the games.

And, yup, this is fun.

Lol, well it probably helps that I write poetry, so I'd have time for some of the distractions as well. Besides, I definitely wouldn't want any housecleaning-type distractions...(sorry, PeeDee, no gritty dirty merchant cabin

. Gotta have that chocolate on the pillow). Traveling on a cruise ship is like having a full-time maid, chauffeur, and cook. All you have to do is put on your swim suit and grab a notebook (or laptop).

limitedtimeauthor · Apr 4, 2007

I write wherever. Actually, I pick up my laptop and move somewhere else whenever I get stuck. (And it doesn't really help.)

My dream place to write is in a cabin I know of (with no phone, internet, or cable TV) that looks out onto a lake where I spent nearly every summer of my childhood. In my writing fantasy, I sit at a little table by the window and type away, stopping occasionally to stare out at the lake and think, and then have a brilliant flash of insight and go back to writing. When I go into town to pick up the week's supplies, I wear white slacks and a scarf and sunglasses, and people say, "Psst. Myrtle! That's the writer who bought Jed's old cabin."

That's my dream place to write. Funny how in the picture I have no kids, no husband, no relatives. Just me and the townspeople.

ltd.

Tallymark · Apr 4, 2007

I want to write in a big, huge, empty hotel, set way in the mountains, far away from civilization, where I can just be isolated for months and months and...oh, wait, maybe that's not such a good idea.

I think the boat idea is fantastic. I'd also be happy in a cabin; the problem I do my best writing by computer. But I need to get myself away from people, away from the internet, and away from tv. Someplace where I can go out and look at the nice view when I need a breather, but otherwise, have nothing to do but write.

As is, I hardly get any writing done because I'm living at home until grad school starts, and my family insisted on me sticking my computer way out in the open in the family room so they could all use it (and since I'm not paying rent, I couldn't exactly say no). Blegh.

Where you Write

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

scarletpeaches

Writer2011

Jennifer L

Writer2011

scarletpeaches

Jersey Chick

Up all night to get Loki

Arisa81

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

scarletpeaches

davids

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

ChaosTitan

Around

JeanneTGC

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch

Anonymisty

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Pat~

Luftmensch Emeritus, A.D.D.

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

PeeDee

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san_remo_ave

Back at it

san_remo_ave

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Pat~

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limitedtimeauthor

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Tallymark

Where you Write

Where's my tea, please...?

Up all night to get Loki

Where's my tea, please...?

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Around

I *am* Catwoman...and Gini Koch

Luftmensch Emeritus, A.D.D.

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Where's my tea, please...?

Where's my tea, please...?

Back at it

Back at it

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Super duper user

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch