The Writing Environment

[Libby Drew]

I've been frustrated enough recently to want to rant about writing and time management, but I'll spare everybody my temper tantrum. I know there are people who have the freedom to sit down and write whenever they like and others with the opposite situation, but what I'd like to do is put all that aside for the moment and ask:

 

Presuming that time is not an issue, what is your "dream" writing environment? Is there a particular place you like to go? A certain room? A particular table or desk or chair with a window view that inspires you? Do you listen to music? Do you meditate first to clear your mind? Is peaceful and serene your style or is a busy park or restaurant more your thing? Soft, comfortable clothing? None at all?

 

My preferred environment is very much a product of my life. I feel lucky if I can carve out an hour or two of uninterrupted peace a day and make enough room at the kitchen table for my laptop. Unfortunately, this happens mostly late in the evening, when I'm so tired my eyes are crossing.

 

There's not much I can do about the chaos that is my life right now, nor do I really want to. I love it. So ideally what I'd really like is a place

[Tiff]

Luckily for me, I have a lot of time to myself. Sister moved across the country, parents are always out. In about a month or so I'm moving into my own apartment. However, at the moment, I usually type away on my laptop in the kitchen because the light is best. Sometimes I move it to the living room if the kitchen table gets too cramped. I like some space to move my elbows or consult notes/papers, etc.

 

However, my writing environment includes noise, so I usually write and put on a "background noise" DVD. Basically I keep playing it over and over again, just to have something to look up at occasionally. Other times, I switch it up with music.

 

I also have an abysmal sleeping schedule, so I often stay up well into the morning. It seems I get my best ideas late at night. But when my eyes start crossing or I can't think, then I pack it up and go to bed. Then new ideas come to me and I have insomnia! Sigh, can't win.

[Duncan Ryder]

I have a dedicated writing room, but because I do my paid writing there, I find it doesn't work that well for me as a creative space. For some reason I find that in cafes and restaurants. (Me and Rowling and John Irving, lol). I often do first drafts by hand with a very beautiful fountain pen I bought in Paris and I have one of those little Mac Air things that I also draft on.... Fountain pens were a real discovery for me. A totally different process for some reason than regular pens or keyboards. I use it only for very very preliminary stuff and poetry and journalling....

[darkfoxprime]

I'm not a regular writer, so I'm not sure I fit in to the subject, but for me, most of my "writing" actually happens in my head when I'm trying to go to sleep I'll start getting relaxed and comfy in bed, then my mind will spark an idea, or continue something I thought of earlier, and suddenly I'm drafting out passages in my mind. Sometimes, I fall asleep anyway, and occasionally lose what I've been thinking about that way, but most of the time, I end up having to get out of bed and go type it all in before my brain will let me sleep.

 

- dfp

[Tiff]

I'm not a regular writer, so I'm not sure I fit in to the subject, but for me, most of my "writing" actually happens in my head when I'm trying to go to sleep I'll start getting relaxed and comfy in bed, then my mind will spark an idea, or continue something I thought of earlier, and suddenly I'm drafting out passages in my mind. Sometimes, I fall asleep anyway, and occasionally lose what I've been thinking about that way, but most of the time, I end up having to get out of bed and go type it all in before my brain will let me sleep.

 

- dfp

That happens to me, too! It's frustrating, especially when you need to get some sleep. Sometimes plot lines and dialogue comes to me, but I'm too freaking lazy or comfy to get out of bed, so I just drift off and pray that the ideas will come back to me the next day. If I think real hard, sometimes they do.

[Graeme]

Some of my writing time is mental. That's usually working out scenes, and some phrases. The most common time for me to be doing that is when I'm driving to and from work, or when I'm lying in bed.

 

At the moment my actual writing time is very chaotic. Too often I don't have the opportunity when I want to write, or I'm not motivated when I do. I write mainly off my laptop now, though I used to do it on the home PC in the living room after the boys had gone to bed.

 

My ideal environment would be a comfy chair, good lighting, and not too many distractions. A nice view out of the window would be distracting . Music may or may not be distracting, depending on what it is (some songs I just stop and listen to, because I love them so much) and how loud it is. As a consequence, I usually prefer to write in relative silence. A CD of music blended with nature sounds would probably be fine, but I prefer to have the nature sounds I can get by just opening the window (except in winter).

[Krista]

I write in my room. It is the only place I am for the most part left alone and my laptop stays safe from the hands of grabby brats.. I live at home and I have a lot of chores to do throughout the day so most of my writing is done at night or really early in the morning when everyone is still asleep. I like Tiff get most of my good ideas and most writing done in the insomnia hours of really early morning.. haha.. I always have to have music playing, I can't have really messengers or these days GA loaded up either as both are kind of distracting.. and I have to have the television on as well and the lights off other than the lamp beside my bed. So over all I have a pretty good set up for long hours of writing... If only I can talk myself into doing that writing instead of goofing off.

[Libby Drew]

Some of my writing time is mental. That's usually working out scenes, and some phrases. The most common time for me to be doing that is when I'm driving to and from work, or when I'm lying in bed.

 

At the moment my actual writing time is very chaotic. Too often I don't have the opportunity when I want to write, or I'm not motivated when I do. I write mainly off my laptop now, though I used to do it on the home PC in the living room after the boys had gone to bed.

 

My ideal environment would be a comfy chair, good lighting, and not too many distractions. A nice view out of the window would be distracting . Music may or may not be distracting, depending on what it is (some songs I just stop and listen to, because I love them so much) and how loud it is. As a consequence, I usually prefer to write in relative silence. A CD of music blended with nature sounds would probably be fine, but I prefer to have the nature sounds I can get by just opening the window (except in winter).

 

A fair amount of my day lends itself to planning and crafting stories in my head. It just doesn't give me the peace to write them. I don't know about you, but it takes me a while -- I don't know, several minutes at the least, a half hour on the outside -- to calm and order my thoughts to the point where I'm ready to actually write. I do, however, keep a tab open on my laptop and a small journal in my purse for ideas, snippets of conversation, and slices of scenes that come to me at other times of day.

Edited June 18, 2008 by Libby Drew

[Libby Drew]

For some reason I find that in cafes and restaurants. (Me and Rowling and John Irving, lol). I often do first drafts by hand with a very beautiful fountain pen I bought in Paris and I have one of those little Mac Air things that I also draft on.... Fountain pens were a real discovery for me. A totally different process for some reason than regular pens or keyboards. I use it only for very very preliminary stuff and poetry and journalling....

 

Okay, I now have this very romanticized picture in my head of you at some quaint Parisian cafe, battered leather journal and fountain pen in hand.

 

I think that's wonderful.

[Razor]

I write whenever, wherever, however I feel like it. The majority is done in my room on my laptop for convenience's sake. A big portion, though, is already done when I go to write it down.

 

Something will happen, someone will say or do something, or I'll be drifting out in lala land somewhere during the day, and all of a sudden I'll have a brain thing and I'll be like "THIS WOULD BE PERFECT FOR MY STORY!"

 

These are usually extremely general, random thoughts or situations or feelings. The tiny details, the real work, comes as I'm writing. I'll have an idea, a direction, some general sense of what I want to happen, and I keep that in mind. Then, when I'm writing, the rest is the easy part because it just sort of writes itself. Description and mechanics are easy for me. What's difficult is knowing what general feel or vibe or idea or whatever I want... I use the word general, but these directory devices are actually pretty complex and layered, and without them I just feel lost if I try to sit and write.

 

A good example is the way I write characters. Joey's supposed to be a jackass. During the day, I see people doing and saying all kinds of things, and if I see something that sparks any creativity or if I think "Oh, that was just so Joey", it gets filed away in the back of my head and comes back when I'm concentrating on the general theme of Joey's being a jackass.

 

So ya see, most of the writing actually is "done" before I start writing. Otherwise....

 

 

Libby, if you're anything like me, you'll want to visit a neutral space while in the right frame of mind. It's a fragile thing for me... if I go there the first time and I mean to write but nothing comes out, the place is sort of tainted the next time, and it makes it harder to write there. Anyway, another thing that might help for ordering your thoughts... you ever tried any sort of character/story organization software? I know one of my friends absolutely loves that Felis thing because she gets to concentrate on her characters so much and put together all of the teensy little notes and things she has, so it makes it easier for her to get into the right frame of mind when she's working on her little character list.

 

~hugs~ Good luck!

[Benji]

Something will happen, someone will say or do something, or I'll be drifting out in lala land somewhere during the day, and all of a sudden I'll have a brain thing and I'll be like "THIS WOULD BE PERFECT FOR MY STORY!"

 

These are usually extremely general, random thoughts or situations or feelings. The tiny details, the real work, comes as I'm writing. I'll have an idea, a direction, some general sense of what I want to happen, and I keep that in mind. Then, when I'm writing, the rest is the easy part because it just sort of writes itself. Description and mechanics are easy for me. What's difficult is knowing what general feel or vibe or idea or whatever I want... I use the word general, but these directory devices are actually pretty complex and layered, and without them I just feel lost if I try to sit and write.

 

A good example is the way I write characters. Joey's supposed to be a jackass. During the day, I see people doing and saying all kinds of things, and if I see something that sparks any creativity or if I think "Oh, that was just so Joey", it gets filed away in the back of my head and comes back when I'm concentrating on the general theme of Joey's being a jackass.

 

 

~hugs~ Good luck!

 

 

...........I love that!!!!

[Duncan Ryder]

A fair amount of my day lends itself to planning and crafting stories in my head. It just doesn't give me the peace to write them. I don't know about you, but it takes me a while -- I don't know, several minutes at the least, a half hour on the outside -- to calm and order my thoughts to the point where I'm ready to actually write. I do, however, keep a tab open on my laptop and a small journal in my purse for ideas, snippets of conversation, and slices of scenes that come to me at other times of day.

 

Yes, I"m like that too...I need some time to clear my head before I start to write. That's what I like about the cafe thing... I can order a latte, settle down, muse a bit, do some people watching, then start scribbling.

 

When I do sit down in my office at the computer, I pull out my little notebook, and do a dump of the scribbling, whatever's there. That gives me that clear my head time... and then I use it as the starting point to do serious drafting. Sometimes I have a rough handwritten draft of an entire scene, sometimes only bits of description or dialogue or even thoughts...

 

Notebooks are a great idea. I carry a little notebook with me everywhere, always. (And I live in terror of losing them, lol -- especially given the stories I'm working on right now!)

[Duncan Ryder]

Okay, I now have this very romanticized picture in my head of you at some quaint Parisian cafe, battered leather journal and fountain pen in hand.

 

I think that's wonderful.

 

 

Lol. I swear I was French in a previous life. Seriously though, a couple of years ago I got tired of always saying to myself "I can never find the space I need to write fiction. So I asked myself if I could write anywhere where would it be.... and I admitted that I loved the cafe thing, and then I gave myself a good kick and said...so write in cafes already!

[Lugh]

perfect environment for me?

 

soundproof section of a basement, no noise, no windows.... no phone... NO INTERNET (hah).. yellow legal pads, blue ink (or a soft lead pencil)

 

surround sound system with a huge tv moniter that I can play scapes on....

 

honestly I would love one of those virtual keyboards where you wear the goggles and gloves... then I could walk around or lay down or whatever and still "type"...

[AFriendlyFace]

Well first off, it's essential that I don't manually write. I hate, hate, HATE physically writing. Signing my name feels like a chore to me. When I was a kid I used to assume that I 'hated to write'. Well I did (and still very much do) phsyically, but if I have the comfort of a keyboard it's one of my absolute favourite activities. If it's pencil/pen and paper I'd rather do almost anything else. So yeah, has to be computer based writing.

 

The second big thing is that it has to be quiet. I cannot STAND to read, write, or even speak if music, television, or even a noisy conversation is happening in the background. I will not talk over someone/something, and that goes for the dialogue/thoughts in my head as well. So quiet is the other 'big thing'.

 

Assuming I have plenty of time (which is assumed in the question), those are really my only two big requirements. I mean yeah, I guess I'd like to be in a comfortable chair wearing comfy clothes, but it would probably be better for me to be indoors (quieter, more controlled environment). However, it would depend on what I was writing about. When I write 'scenes' I try to vividly imagine the location. Ideally it's a location I'm in or have been. Most of my indoor descriptions of houses come from visualizing my own home or the homes of others.

 

I tend not to focus on descriptions of scenery anyway though. I prefer to write (and read for that matter) things which focus on the characters and dialogue. I only include descriptions of the scenery as needed. For example if I'm writing a scene taking place in a living room I'll briefly describe the living room and the way the characters are positioned around the room and what they're doing etc. because it plays into the narration. I would never stop to describe something which didn't have a direct impact on the dialogue or events in the story. I do try to make it seem like they're 'doing something' though, because most of the time people are. So I'll say "...said Bob as he flicked his cigarette to the pavement and toed it out", but I would not previously have been likely to describe the pavement and I probably won't go into great detail about it unless it will continue to play a role in the story.

 

That's just my personal taste as a reader and writer, I don't like long, elaborate descriptions but I do appreciate reading and writing about what casual activities the characters are doing and how they're interacting in their environment. Anyway, point is I don't care about my environment all that much as long as it's quiet and I can type, however I have a slight preference for being in the environment (or having just been in the environment) in which my characters are interacting.

 

 

-Kevin

[GaryK]

I'm not an author, but I am always adding things to the journal I've kept since high school. I'm also a software developer and sometimes ideas for a program I'm working on come to my mind.

 

For those of you like Tiff and myself who tend to get ideas as they're falling asleep, or who wake up with a wonderful idea, here's what I do and what I suggest you try.

 

My laptop sits on a small table in front of one of the nightstands by my bed. I keep it running all night with Word running. If I get an idea I'll lean over, type it in, and then lay back down in bed.

 

Hope that helps.

[kitten]

Like others here I do a lot of writing in my head, often in bed, before actually sitting down to write. Often even the exact words (e.g. the first 4 paragraphs of Perspective) will be in my head before I start to write.

 

Like Kevin I hate writing by hand and even signing my name is a pain. Unfortunately my work involves signing lots of forms!

 

When I do sit down to write it is in my home office and there must be absolute silence and no distractions. I can't do any sort of work with background music and I even have the curtains closed so I'm not distracted by things going on outside my windows.

 

Kit

[Razor]

When I do sit down to write it is in my home office and there must be absolute silence and no distractions. I can't do any sort of work with background music and I even have the curtains closed so I'm not distracted by things going on outside my windows.

 

Kit

 

 

How very odd... I must have background music if I'm in my room alone. Usually it's something that helps me create the idea/mood/vibe I'm looking for... but I gotta have it. Otherwise I feel stupid sitting all alone staring at Word.

[kitten]

How very odd... I must have background music if I'm in my room alone. Usually it's something that helps me create the idea/mood/vibe I'm looking for... but I gotta have it. Otherwise I feel stupid sitting all alone staring at Word.

 

Yes, I am very odd!

Maybe I'm just not good at multitasking.

I like to listen to music when I'm doing boring work (like stapling booklets) but if my mind needs to be engaged then I don't like any background sound. So I can't write with music, radio, TV or anyone chatting in the background.

 

Also, even if I'm not working I sometimes it enjoyable and relaxing to be alone and sitting in silence.

 

Kit

[Libby Drew]

Yes, I am very odd!

Maybe I'm just not good at multitasking.

I like to listen to music when I'm doing boring work (like stapling booklets) but if my mind needs to be engaged then I don't like any background sound. So I can't write with music, radio, TV or anyone chatting in the background.

 

Also, even if I'm not working I sometimes it enjoyable and relaxing to be alone and sitting in silence.

 

Kit

 

I completey understand the appreciation of silence. When I'm afforded it, it's something to be relished. Other times, when there are other people or activity around, I will listen to music, usually my ipod, something soft and moody.

[steph]

So I can't write with music, radio, TV or anyone chatting in the background.

I'm like this, too (not that I write creatively). For school work, I found that I love listening to soundtracks that have no words, like Braveheart. Some electonica songs work well, too.

[GaryK]

Also, even if I'm not working I sometimes it enjoyable and relaxing to be alone and sitting in silence.

I completey understand the appreciation of silence. When I'm afforded it, it's something to be relished.

There are times when I need absolute quiet. Most supermarkets and pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens) carry a product called Quiet Please from a company named Flents. The product is foam earplugs that you compress and then slide into your ears whereupon they expand and block out all but the loudest noises. For example, I cannot hear the phone ringing when I'm wearing my earplugs. I can't hear normal conversation. I can't hear my doorbell. I can hear the fire alarm. They are not the least bit uncomfortable either.

 

Hope that helps.

[Menzoberranzen]

I write wile sitting in bed with my laptop or at Starbucks. I can't write, though, if I feel like there's something else I should be doing, which is often. The biggest hinderance to my writing is aligning the times when I'm inspired to write with the times when I am able to write.

 

Menzo

[corvus]

My writing environment depends on my stomach. If I've just eaten, I'm simply too full of food to concentrate. All I can do is sit there and wait for the food coma to pass. If I'm too hungry, I feel limp and lifeless and completely uninspired. So my writing schedule revolves around my meals.

 

The whole shebang of other things -- relative quiet, privacy, etc. -- come next.

[AFriendlyFace]

Yes, I am very odd!

Maybe I'm just not good at multitasking.

I like to listen to music when I'm doing boring work (like stapling booklets) but if my mind needs to be engaged then I don't like any background sound. So I can't write with music, radio, TV or anyone chatting in the background.

 

Also, even if I'm not working I sometimes it enjoyable and relaxing to be alone and sitting in silence.

I don't think you're odd at all in this regard! (on the other hand you're just like me in this way so perhaps I'm biased )

 

I write wile sitting in bed with my laptop or at Starbucks.

I didn't notice that word when I first read the sentence. For a second there I was quite confused about why your bed was at Starbucks.

 

I can't write, though, if I feel like there's something else I should be doing, which is often. The biggest hinderance to my writing is aligning the times when I'm inspired to write with the times when I am able to write.

I feel this way too.