Where to write?

Where do you write?

Is it really that important? For most of us writers the decision of writing facing a wall, or looking out a window is the equivilant of wearing odd socks or going naked in public.

Whatever it is we writers obsess about, we mostly make sure that the muse - while we are waiting for him/her to strike, must at least appear in a semi-comforatble and dynamic environment. Or even at the kitchen table.

I am always intersted to find out where fellow writers hone their craft. Some prefer the isolation of a cafe. Another person I know loves writing at 11 p.m. on the dot sitting up in bed. Someone else can write on the back of a scrap of paper on the bus and then transfer it to a script book.

For me it's not so much about the place I write. More about the state of mind I am in at the time. And usually what I'm wearing. That is the odd bit. Mostly I tend to wear brighter colours when freewriting to give me a bit of energy. Don't imagine I look like a clown but I do prefer anything over black. No idea why really.

At the moment I am in the process of cleaning out my office. It has taken me two days already. The reason I am going so slow is I am procrastinating. Having a good rummage in old letters, notebooks and photographs. The need to declutter is very strong this year. The new website for the Write Space will be up and running shortly, and the classes are starting again next week.

Things must be bad - I've even assembled a set of drawer files my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas. And they are also complete with little index cards at the front.

During my digging into the past, I found our old Las Vegas Little Chapel wedding video/letters never sent to friends/year planners with chldren's drawnings on them/old Easter Egg boxes and a jewellery box.Taking a five minute break until I head back into it.

Big dilemna - should I move the desk away from the window and over to the far wall? This will mean less light but more heat. Does it matter at the end of the day?

Who Wrote Where -
Virgina Woolf - said a woman must have "a room of her own."
J.K. Rowling - cafe and flat.
Nathalie Sarraute - cafe, same time and table every morning.
Marcel Proust,wrote from midnight to dawn in a cork-lined room.

Stephen King in his book On Writing -
If possible, there should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with. If there's a window, draw the curtains or pull down the shades unless it looks out at a blank wall. For any writer, but for the beginning writer in particular, it's wise to eliminate every possible distraction.

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith: The best place to write is by yourself because writing then becomes an escape from the terrible boredom of your own personality.
("Writing, Typing, and Economics," The Atlantic, March 1978)

But the most sensible response may be Ernest Hemingway's, who said simply, "The best place to write is in your head."