Day 9: Where You Write

Where do you write? Most of the time I like to write at my desk in my room. Usually I close the door but sometimes I leave it open. Just to keep me honest (the fear of getting caught playing games or scrolling through Pinterest helps keep me on target.)

Last month I posted a picture of my desk, all clean and tidy. Well…

My desk as of Nov. 9, 2013 yes it is a very comfortable work space.

My desk tends to be full of ‘Creative Clutter,’ unless I have very recently cleaned it. While sometimes it’d be nice if I could keep enough of it clean to lay out my notes or, safely, set down my morning cup of coffee, I like my desk. I even like most of the clutter. This is how I like to work. I can’t explain it, my Mother certainly doesn’t understand it, but that’s how it is.

Sometimes I do like to change it up though, or maybe just plain have to. When I wrote the bulk of this post I was sitting in the car waiting for my sister to get out of the grocery store and my laptop had been installed in the living room for the day, partly because we needed music for cleaning.

Some days I find that a new location can be inspiring, I get ideas form things going on around me or I click into a deeper focus through tuning out everything around me. I think maybe it keeps part of my brain occupied so I have fewer irrelevant thoughts. (Maybe that’s part of why I work better with music? Hmm.)

Another advantage to writing in a busy area is that it can make you feel less isolated then if you spent all your free time in your room. (You may have to explain to your family that interrupting you wile typing is a bad idea. A warning sign might be appropriate.)

I’ve met people who write in coffee shops and I’ve heard that some bookstores encourage you to come write there during NaNo. Brian Jacques, one of my favorite authors, always wrote on a typewriter in the garden (weather permitting) Someday I’m going to go up to the attic of our granary and write there. Oh and our local theater! It’s such a cool old place I would love to just wander around with a notebook and camera for the day.

Okay now I’m getting a little off topic, what I’m trying to get at is that the space you write in is important, it can affect the way you write. Maybe you get distracted with a lot of things going on so quite is an absolute must for you. Or maybe you could benefit from a change. Try out different things: crowds, quite, in a garden, in the car, on the porch, in bed. Take your writing outside the box and try new things, on the page and around it. You never know what might work for you until you try it.

Where have you tried writing? What works for you? What doesn’t? Where do you want to try writing?

~Rita