I think the fascination with a writer’s workspace must have started with Stephen King’s On Writing. Do you write with the door open or closed? In front of a window? What type of desk? A huge chunk of that book has to do with the writing room.
I can certainly see the value of training yourself to click over to writing mode the second your butt hits the cushion of a certain chair or you step foot into a room whose walls are lined with shelves sagging under the weight of leather-bound books. As for me? I prefer to be somewhere in my own home with my own stuff. It’s comforting.
However, I’m a huge disbeliever in linking your creative process to a single place or environment. Life changes and, more than that, it gets in the way. If you can only write when you have a large chunk of uninterrupted time then there will be many days when no writing gets done at all. If you need silence to work what happens if you want to get a puppy or have a baby? The show still has to go on.
On the subject of silence v. noise while writing, different authors have different routines. Stephenie Meyer is attached to playlists she creates for each book. Others say that the first draft deserves an author’s undivided attention. No music. No email. No phone calls or television. You only get to tell your story for the first time once.
I agree with that sentiment, but sometimes having no noise puts a lot of pressure on me to create on the spot. I write better and faster when operating with no distractions, but I am able to write longer if sitting in front of the television. That way if I get stuck, I can relax for a few minutes, watch TV and not get stressed out by my writer’s block.
Whatever your routine be open to adapting. Don’t ever link the writing process to something concrete. After all, the only thing you need to write well is you.
Do you agree? What is your writing routine?
For more Topical Tuesdays try these: Brand Yourself, Ideas and Execution in Book Packaging, and To Self-publish or Not To Self-Publish?
**And always remember, if you would like your blog to participate in Topical Tuesdays, Jay Solomon and I would love to include a link to your post and comment on your take on that Tuesday’s issue.
Status: Working on comic book stuff: synopsis and query. Preparing lists of where I want to submit, etc. It will be a very limited list to start out with.
5 Comments
July 16, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Great post and I totally agree. One of my greatest challenges to overcome as a writer – and especially an editor of my own work – is needing that large chunk of uninterrupted time and to be in the right place. Having just moved, I haven’t been able to seize the 20 minutes here or hour there that I get to work a little and it’s put me way behind. I hope to settle down soon, but honestly, your post has inspired me to try a little harder to seize the time I’m given because that will add up to a good amount of work accomplished. Thanks for the awesome post!
July 16, 2008 at 10:10 pm
My routine seems to hinge on what kind of quiet I can get at home. I’ve basically given up trying to write during the week, and instead write on the weekends. I live next door to a mountain, so I frequently lug my laptop outside and fully immerse myself with Mother Nature for fifteen or twenty minutes before I settle back down to the topic at hand.
July 18, 2008 at 2:59 am
I write where my computer is, which is in the main living room of the house. I wouldn’t choose it. It’s noisy and distracting. But I didn’t have the luxury of a choice.
I have covered it in my toys, to make it more homely. And there’s a space for my mug of tea. Where I can, I wait for times when no one else is in the room. That isn’t always possible though.
So I don’t have my heart set on writing in my writing space. I’d just as soon write somewhere else, if there was somewhere else.
July 21, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Polenth, I hope that someday you get your dream writing space. I know that I would love a big office to call me own!
August 9, 2008 at 3:16 pm
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