When an audience of newbies convenes to imbibe the wisdom of an established writer, he/she is often asked, “What’s your process?”
Many things are interwoven in this be-all question:
- are you a plotter or a pantser (or, like me, a plodder)
- what time of day do you write
- do you engage in re-writes constantly or wait until the end of the day/manuscript
- (fill in the blank)
I believe the place one writes is an important part of the equation…
Many writers convene at a nearby coffee shop, using their laptop as their writing tool of choice. I prefer to remain at home, in the silence of my home office, rather than decamp to a coffee shop where I’m known and likely to be distracted by people and sights and incidents. BTW, I know of no one who writes their stories longhand these days. If you do, tell me so in the comments.
I like to use my laptop with the built-in grammar and spellchecks, components of WORD. I’ve added Writer Pro as an writing aid, too. I don’t need the dictionary or thesaurus – I need the curbs on my over-reliance on ellipses… and exclamation points. (ha!)
The drawback of the laptop is its power to distract. I might be busy about the task of writing something sensible and useful and shining light into dark corners, and then succumb to the temptation of sending Google into other dark corners (never the dark web for me), such as the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance and how much was Howard Hughes worth and has anyone located the original Ten Commandment tablets and was Beowulf a real person and did Teddy Roosevelt kill any beasts on his African safaris or did he only pose with a rifle, and was J.D. Salinger happy after he vanished from public view, and is it true that Albert Einstein was unable to sail a small boat, and how soon as a rule do famous people become unknown.
Yes, Goggle has everything!
Including ChatGPT, but I vow to never use it to write a piece for me.
I need to be in my office to write. And I used to write longhand but my first NaNo taught me to use just my computer.
Thanks for sharing, Alex. We are both blessed to have an office, as well as the need and ability to write.
I prefer to write a home too. To me, a coffee shop is more distracting.
Let’s add the convenience of one’s home sweet home, aka ‘nest’, as well as not having to drive somewhere, find a parking place…
My answer: just about everywhere. The problem is that I have to keep track of those scraps of paper, or paperbacks, where I scribble on a blank page. I’ve started keeping a notebook in my backpack, so that’s helped organize all those random ideas. Sheesh! Sometimes I wonder how I ever get a book written.
What a cute reply! I’ll bet you’re less addled that this sounds and few ‘random’ thoughts are lost!
Your posts are always fun, PJ. I need to write at home! Happy creating in October!
Thanks for the compliment! I like to have fun –
I’m a plantser. What time I write doesn’t really matter. If I sneak in some writing time, then whatever time it is, I’m writing. But more often than night I spend more time writing in the evening than any other time. My days will get so busy that night time tends to become the best writing time for me. And doing ten minute writing sprints helps too.
Any time you write is the right time, eh! Sounds like you are prolific –
I have a desk in the corner of my living room. That’s the best place for me to write, but when I started writing seriously, I did go to a French Bakery for coffee once a week. I sat down with a notebook and wrote longhand whatever came to mind. The free writing helped to inspire me.
Thanks for sharing. Liza. You helped me recall that during the (longhand) free writes with which an early mentor opened our group, the feedback from others was that my writing seemed to flow and was less inhibited. I think I need to get back that ‘let it fly’ feel.