Where Do You Write?

Here’s how a post topic goes viral.  Meleah and nine other bloggers pick up the topic Where Do You Write? from Lisa of That’s Why? and post on it.   Then, ten people follow suit and pick up the topic from Meleah and Lisa’s nine other followers.  If it takes two days for each blogger to post on the topic and every blogger picks up ten new posters, within ten days, there will be a 999,999 Where Do You Write? posts.  Within three weeks, every blogger on earth will have posted on Where Do You Write? and we’ll all be looking for another topic.  So, let’s get going.

To some degree, where I write depends upon what I’m writing.   I would guess that 75% of what I write has its inception in my Morning Pages, the two pages of free form, hand written prose I write to start most days.  Often, it’s just keep-the-pen-moving stream-of-consciousness rambling but sometimes, I write a post that way and transcribe it later, as I did with yesterday’s Charoset and Chocolate Eggs.   I have done Morning Pages sitting in my car in the park for years, but my current vehicle, while a kick to drive, is cramped for writing, especially behind the wheel, so I usually sit in the passenger seat like this:

Usually, the radio is on, set to Sirius XM’s soft jazz or light classical station.   The park is a beautiful, peaceful place to write, think, meditate … and sometimes nap while trying to write, think or meditate.  That is a hazard of being an energetic sixty-six year old … you can wear yourself out.

Sometimes, if the weather is good, I grab my seat cushion (this older tuchus needs even more padding than age has provided naturally) and settle at a picnic table.   Besides giving me more room, I’m usually visited by a few bluebirds, gnatcathers or wood ducks, which is a bonus.   Nature and writing seem to go well together.  Being somewhat less comfortable than in the leather seats of my car, I’m less likely to nap, too.

If I have things to get done at home, I’ll sometimes sit at the kitchen table to write in order to save myself the driving time.   Writing my Morning Pages at home gives me an endless supply of my own coffee (I drink too much of it) and the chance to say Good Morning to Muri when she comes downstairs (I’m an early riser).   If I open the patio blinds, I can watch the birds on the feeders or in the birdbath, keep an eye on the squirrels and watch the bunnies devour my lawn.

Sometimes something special shows up.

Remember when we used to say, It’s time to get something down on paper? and it meant that it was time to get serious?  These days, the journal entries and drafts go on paper … when it’s time to get serious, it’s all electronic.   My preferred location for keyboarding is my office because it has a large monitor, full sized keyboard, all my references, and a nice sound system.  And, it has a Privacy Policy.  When I first started working at home, my wife and daughter would just stroll in and start talking.  I used to kid that they didn’t really believe I was working.  We eventually agreed that if the door was closed, they’d knock, which minimized interruptions.  My daughter is now in her own house with her own babies but Muri still honors the Privacy Policy, as does my son.   So, the office is choice number one for serious writing, in spite of the fact that I’m a messy office guy.  I did clean it up a little for this picture, by the way.

I am known, however, to suffer from a benign form of Cabin Fever (staying in the house makes me crazy but I don’t kill anyone).  When that strikes, I go to our local Corner Bakery, where they have Wi-Fi.  Sometimes, they also have Canyon High School cheerleaders (noisy) or the local knitting club (surprisingly, even noisier), in which case I have Bose Noise Canceling Headphones.  But I like it when it’s empty, like this:

There’s one more place I write … a dimly-lighted enclave suspended between my conscious and subconscious where I’m always writing.   Lying awake late at night, before I get out of bed in the morning, walking in the park, there’s almost always something on my mental back burner.   This mental writing has always been at my disposal, even when I was writing technical reports and proposals.   Sometimes, I just discover ideas but other times, by the time I sit down at the keyboard, a piece is written.   Some of my most imaginative material seems to just show up there.  But it can be a mixed blessing because often, it can’t be turned off.  I’ll find myself checking out of a conversation with a friend or waking up in the night, trying to figure out what happens next or how a story ends, only to find I’m spinning my wheels on nothing.   Anyway, I imagine that creative enclave looks something like this:

Creativity

So, I just Googled Where Do You Write? and I can see, it’s still sub-viral as a topic.   I’ve done my part.  What are you waiting for?

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Tags: blogging, creativity, painting, photography, postaday2011, writing, writing and blogging

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