No, not IT.Where would you write, if you could write anywhere? Do you prefer a blank room, quiet, cozy, with no distractions? Or a panoramic vista with inspirational views everywhere you look?
I like this place - wish it was real.
I find I'm too easily distracted though, to have a lot going on around me when I write. I know JK Rowling wrote in coffee houses while her baby slept in a pram nearby...and she still writes in public from what I hear. If that's what it takes to have my characters become a household name, I suppose I could give it a try, but I really don't think I'd get much done.
First of all I'd have to go somewhere far away. I suffer from small-town-itis, which means just about everywhere I go nearby, I run into someone I know. In fact, just the other night, we went out to dinner at a restaurant we hardly ever go to a few towns away, and as we were leaving I ran into one of my daughter's preschool teachers. Fortunately I was there to eat, not to write.
I need solitude to get my best work done. Even the computer distracts me. My desk is near a window that looks out on the street, so I'm constantly pulling back the curtains to see who is driving or walking by - was that a dog? Look at all those birds...ooh, there goes the mail carrier, better check and see if he left me something I can take to the bank...
And then the phone rings. Then the dog wants to go out and then he wants to come right back in again. Then I remember I have laundry in the washer that needs to be put in the dryer. Then my pen runs out of ink. [Yes, I write long hand when I really want to accomplish something, because I hate to stare at a blank computer screen.]
So I definitely would like a quiet, idyllic setting in which to get my work done, but if this was my office...I'd probably be taking a walk rather than writing.
What about you?
In other news:
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the 2007 AMBER HEAT WAVE!
There were seven winners out of over 200 entries.
For the list of winners, go HERE.
Welcome aboard everyone!
And...
Tomorrow I'll be announcing the winner of my Pick Your Favorite Cover Contest. I've already received more than 80 entries and the vote is close so if you haven't entered yet, hurry up! Yours may be the deciding vote!
Good luck!
3 comments:
I had the perfect place: a table in the reference section of a local bookstore . I wrote my entire first draft of "Nowhere to Hide" at that table. It was great, lots of room, semi-quiet/private but with enough activity/noise in the rest of the store to keep me entertained. Not anymore :-(
They got rid of "my" table.
I think hotels are GREAT places to write. Room service, maid service, and easy access to a shower (I LOVE to take a shower when I'm stuck on a scene) and if you get bored in the room you can always go people watch in the lobby/bar/restaurant.
Someday I want to be successful enough that I can rent a hotel room, like JK and leave my signature on the furniture when I'm finished with my long awaited novel. LOL. Until then I'm probably best off sitting in the kitchen. ;)
Before my notebook computer blew up, I would take it out on my back deck in spring and summer and write. I'd take a little CD player out there and write. Hard to see the screen so I would have to make the screen black with white letters. I miss that. I've been really chomping at the bit to get an alphasmart. I think for me it will be the way to go. Easily taken even to work to write during the down times. I won't have to write longhand and then rewrite to a file, or lug a notebook computer along with me. Of course, just quick ideas or major brainstorming will still be done on paper. Something about having that right hand going and the paper and pencil stimulates my brain. - I can so see me sitting at a hotel room at conference and plugging away on a chapter or on the plane. I think being tied to my office all the time is probably a bit stifling sometimes. Or, I have the damn internet to contend with. Ughhhh...I'm addicted. So counterproductive.
Yep. Think I'll invest in an alphasmart so I can go back outside with my writing.
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