Showing posts with label where I write. Show all posts
Showing posts with label where I write. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2012

A-Z Challenge: L is for Location

We've completed the second week of the A-Z challenge! Keep it up, everyone!

L is for Location, location, location! (or, where I write)

For years, I didn't have a set space for writing. I had a laptop in college, so I wrote wherever I could find the space. When we moved to North Carolina, I bought a beautiful desk and a desktop, and I started to claim my writing space.

For two years, my computer also served as our T.V./DVD player, so my writing desk sat in the wide open living room. I didn't realize how hard it was for me to write in shared family space until we bought the house and I claimed a bedroom as my office. (To be fair, it turns into a guest room whenever we have company, but still, it's mostly mine.)



I relish the ability to shut the door and fall into my writing, but I have also learned to appreciate writing in public places, like coffee shops.

During NaNoWriMo last year, a good friend and I made weekly writer's dates, meeting at Starbucks for an hour or two of quiet, companionable writing. To my surprise, I was profoundly productive on our outings. I am learning how to incorporate writing at home and writing away into my process.

When I revise, I have a third location: the dining table. With the curtain open and light streaming in, I am more productive revising Kindle to notebook than I have ever been staring at the computer screen. Once again, it's new and strange: I subscribe very firmly to the idea that anyone must have "a room of one's own" to write (more on that later in the month), but I am learning flexibility in my location.

Where do you write? Do you have a favorite setting/desk/tool that you have to use whenever you write, or can you sit down anywhere and craft a story?