Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Where do you write?

While preparing yourself for the end of month reporting (coming soon!), hie thee to thy writing spot and tell us a little something about it.

Where do you sit? What do the surroundings look like? What can you hear? What can you smell? And what do you need to kick off your best writing?

10 comments:

Laurel said...

I write on the couch in our family room, back to the arm rest with legs slung over a throw pillow to prop up my laptop. Usually in the middle of the night since quiet is a nocturnal creature that only comes out to play between 10pm and 7am.

Sticky droplets of evaporated apple juice offer a pre-school perfume to the air. A whiff of goldfish cracker crumbs float up from the couch. Warm, sleepy dogs add a grounded earthy scent to the collected fragrance.

I miss my old house and its cave-like basement.

As for what I need to slide into my rhythm: an idea and quiet.

Sylvia said...

I sit in a spacious office for two. I have a corner desk with a small bookshelf and a huge monitor and plenty of clear space for stacking things or writing in notebooks.

My window looks over the garden and the golf course and beyond that, the Mediterranean Sea.

I spend my days with the shutters firmly closed.

writtenwyrdd said...

I can cadge some time at work sometimes, but mostly it's at my desk in my office.

Sarah Laurenson said...

I think Laurel should get credit for this comment. Beautifully written.

I'm at my desk which is in a corner of our large living room (25ish feet by 30ish feet). I face the TV, but it's off. Today it's raining, so add a whiff of wet hound to the mix.

Actually, I do better when sequestered in the guest bedroom which I may have to do this weekend to get caught up on some serious points, um, I mean editing.

Angie said...

I'm in the computer room, on the ground floor of our townhouse. I'm sitting at a big, folding office table, because I need tabletop real estate more than I need a couple of skinny drawers. There's another table next to mine with my husband's computer in it, and the printer is on the floor between us.

To my left is a low bookcase filled mainly with software boxes, books, disks, that sort of thing. Next to that, a bit behind me, is the sliding glass door leading out to our tiny bit of yard. I pulled some weeds a week or so ago before the joints gave out, but there are more, and I'm probably not going to get to them till we get back from BayCon next week.

Directly behind me is the door to the bathroom, a skinny bookcase and a file cabinet, then a closet.

To my right, past my husband's table, is the door to the hall, which leads straight down to the front door. It's convenient when delivery guys come, although they mostly ring the bell, drop the package and high-tail it out of here anyway. :)

Everything's pretty blah. We're only about a quarter unpacked -- essentials came out, then we sort of slowed down and stopped [hides under keyboard] and there aren't any pictures or anything up yet. The carpets are beige and the walls are white; that was the builder's choice, and since the place is brand new, and moving was kind of expensive even with my husband's employer picking up a good chunk of the tab for the moving part of it, it's hard to justify new paint and carpet when what we have is perfectly good, just... boring.

The weather outside is gray and dim, but that seems to be usual for up here. Although I've heard the Bay Area is gray and dim too; we'll find out on Friday.

Angie

Robin B. said...

I used to sit in my study, but we turned that back into a bedroom and the study desk is now in the back living room, so I now sit on a small sofa in our bedroom. T my right is a large window, just about floor to ceiling, looking over our back yard which runs into parkland. Very peaceful and open.

It's very quiet when I shut the door, so I can hardly hear anything except my typing, or, if I'm in the mood, I hear my music.

I have to be alone and feel separated from the everyday things to be able to concentrate.

Phoenix Sullivan said...

Oh, oh, I just posted something along these lines a couple of days ago -- with pictures. But no smells. What is it with you and smells? Remember, I live on a farm. There are lots and lots of smells...

McKoala said...

LOL Phoenix - see, hear, smell, touch, taste remember? I'm assuming most people are tasting tea/coffee and hoping that they are only touching the keyboard/pen - hence the interest in smells!

Mother (Re)produces. said...

You can see the place here:

http://thespitzer.blogspot.com/2010/04/proactive-no-i-dont-mean-that-yogurt.html

So far I have only managed to write in the mornings when the kids are at school. I smell dirt and also the wood of the old table, which I had to scrub down to make usuable. I hear garbage trucks and the local creche on the way up to the woods and other things, but since nothing is as loud as the accusatory rumble and squeal of unwashed laundry, it's still a massive improvement over my (in house) office in terms of productivity.

But sometimes I feel the cold. It's just a garden shed, so if it's early or rainy it can be quite chilly in there.

The most distracting thing is animals trotting around on the roof- be it birds or my own cat.

And if I've been particularly unproductive, I can sometimes catch an elusive whiff of eucalyptus. Then the hair stands up on the back of my neck.

McKoala said...

*puts down eucalyptus spray*

heheheheh