Just wondering, because I'm nosey. For myself, until I got my first computer (January 2002) My ideal writing location was At night, in a cupboard, with a pencil. Now of course it's all saved to disc. (At night, secretly stored in cupboard which still contains notebook and pencil.) I tend to find a line pops into my head, or a character keeps creeping into my dreams and I can't get rid of them until I've turned them into something on paper. :-) I break writers block by drawing instead. Progress in one seems to revive the other. So, what works for you?

Preferably once the kids are asleep and the husband is at work. I almost have to write on my laptop, the desktop is in a thoroughfare and way too busy. Plus, the laptop means I can nest up comfortably to suit the ups and downs of my health. Music is an absolute if I need to write during the day, something to noise out the background sounds of daytime. Sometimes, at night, when I'm alone, the music is too much if I'm not careful with selections. I have a couple of CDs I compiled for various themes, and sticking to one of those helps. Got a notebook in my purse, just in case, one by my bed, one at the other desk, and even one with the laptop, just in case I'm in the middle of something else and can't open a new program to work on a piece. Plus, that one has all my geeky computer notes as well. I do the "single line" compel thing as well. One will pop in, and something must be done. My Poser inspiration works the same way, and with deteriorating memory, even those get written down if I can't work on it immediately.

I always write with paper and pencil. Typing seems to inhibit the flow of words. Maybe I just like scribbling out lines. There's just something about having a pencil in hand. Of course the paper has been known to be a napkin at a bar, a scrap of paper in my wallet....

I haven't done any real writing for a couple of years. I type so much nowadays I can't write with a pen & paper - my brain goes too fast and I miss out letters. When I was writing, I worked about 6hrs / night at weekdays and 10hrs / day at weekends, every week for 10 months (on top of a full-time job). I can't remember whose quote this was, but somebody once said of themselves, "I only write when I feel inspired... and I see to it that I'm inspired at 9am every morning without fail." I suppose it was like that with me. Just writing all the time. Sad, eh? But it's a shame I don't have time to write anymore.

The actual writing is at my computer desk. I type faster than I write and I'm at the point of having trouble reading my own handwriting if I'm not careful. When I go to bed is when I compose the ideas behind the stories. The plots, characters, and scenes come together as I try to sleep. Needless to say, I get wrapped up in the story and don't fall asleep until late. I'm always a bit sleep deprived as a result.

Sleep? What it this thing of which you speak?

I take a journal to work where I keep a dictionary and thesaurus in my locker. I have note cards in the car glove box. The notes and ideas and journals that make it home are piled about all over my room. I'm old enough to remember the hell of using a typewriter and whiting out mistakes, so I cherish the power of my PC and word processing programs.

I have a thousand ideas but have trouble following through on them. I usually start by cropping my title just right and while I write I back up a lot to correct mistakes. This all ensures that I will never get rejected 'cos I will never finish anything:)

But I think I'm going to follow James Frey's advice and start writing on the PC with the monitor turned off so I won't be tempted to tinker instead of compose.

Ramnimus - lol, I know what you mean by your last statement. I tried 5 times to write a novel, kidding myself that if I revised it as I went along it would be much easier in the long run. The concept of completing the work before revising it never entered my head. That's why I didn't finish anything until I finally bit the bullet and vowed not to mess with anything I'd already written, no matter how bad I believed it to be (and take my word for it, first time around the bad bits WERE absolutely f**king atrocious!) As soon as I decided on a proper revision plan I was OK ! (Although the agents had their own views on this! ;))) The downside is that I need to do at least one more full revision on that particular novel before I resubmit, in order to stand a chance of publication, and ATM I simply don't have the time. but... I suppose if I stopped doing pictures of pop-eyed women and aliens in bars... <: Hey, and don't be afraid of rejection slips. I love 'em! The comments often puzzle me greatly, but I love reading what they have to say because these guys know a hell of a lot more than I do about what sells and what doesn't, so it's always a learning experience. Unless, of course, it's a "standard" rejection, in which case, booo! We don't like those. :(

I don't write. And in front of my monitor with my fingers over the keyboard is where I usually accomplish that first sentence.

Hi! I'm not posting much, but I'm following this forum (I'm Italian, and it's not easy for me to write in English, but I'm enjoying reading your works)... I write very much (in my native language of course), and like Caledonia I really cannot type my "literary" works... I need a piece of paper... I think a lot about my stories before writing them... When they are ripe (I hope it's the right word) they came out all at once... I really write everywhere, but the way I like best is at my desk, with one of those pens that need dipping in the inkpot, so that I can fondle each sentence before fixing it on paper... (I have one pen with a glass nib, it's really fantastic!)... Forgive my English, and... I don't post much, but so far I love this forum...

Hey, you write better English than most English people!

Yeah, REALLY !

After the beautiful and almost erotic methodology of jgeorge (lovely command of the English language), my system is going to sound pretty prosaic. When I write, not much these days, my most productive time is riding on the bus (40 minutes to work and 40 minutes back) with a student's lined notebook, crushed in the middle of noisey, smelly people. I can't write in complete silence...I start feeling ichy. I wrote tons when I was in college...on the bus, before class, sitting on benches waiting for class, in the library. Now, if I am serious about a project, I have to take that tattered notebook with me and find my most productive moments are those on the bus and in breaks from work and during my lunch time. Then I go back to my house and transcribe the muddled and hard to read notes, and they magically expand as I type. But because I'm not very disciplined about writing every day, and because I've gotten totally distracted by graphics, now I don't write. But I create the graphics the same way. Same old notebook and crude stick figures are the scene setters on paper. Same thinking it through on the bus and in the middle of the crowd. I guess I need the turmoil of people to be creative, such as I am. I am least productive on vacations and on weekends. Go figure.

Sorry I haven't been around at all. I have been having severe creativity block on all sides these past few months :(. So, I have just been catching up on the postings here :). When I start a new story, I write it in pencil on paper. Then I type it into the computer and it becomes my second draft because I usually do changes to it as I type. When I go out, I have a little note book and pen with me and I write down whatever comes into my mind. I started doing this because injuries I have, have caused me to rest while Hubby window shops (yes, a man that LOVES to window shop LOL). While just sitting there, my mind would wander and I decided to write them down. I now have about 6 different pieces that can become poetry and/or stories that I just have to get around attacking ;)

Mostly I write at home, desktop PC. I'm another that used to write by hand but now find it too slow. There are those times when it's a bit slow at work though, and - what the hell - I'm sitting at a computer...
For the inspiration, there's always at least one notebook and three pens about my person, so caf, bars, parks - wherever the idea comes from. Plus there's all the notebooks scattered around - by the bed, by the phone ("Sorry Mum, what were you saying?").

BTW, I love jgeorge's idea of fondling sentences. I'm going to do some of that myself.

I wish I could fondle sentences. (Isn't that against the law in some states?) I'm more of the "chop a tree down, drag it over, and chop away until it has the right shape" type of writer. (Type a block, hack it up, blather some more, slice and dice, and hope I have at least a functional toothpick left.)

Yeah, RIGHT, Cres. You offer the best suggestions of the forum.

Cresent,
Isn't that the way Hunter Thompson writes? If I could write like that, I guess the where wouldn't be so important.

• TJ

This is an old thread, I know, but I read something interesting from a hometown novelist named Ken Kuhlken who was featured in an article in our weekly free paper....it seems oddly appropriate to the writers here who also enjoy creating graphics:

About Kuhlken's grandmother, he said, "Without her, I don't know if I would have ever become a writer. She had stories, stories, and stories. She was a painter. She studied with Charles Fries, who was famous. They got to be friends. She would go off up in the mountains on painting day trips with Mr. Fries. Watching her paint, I learned a lot about writing. She'd start off with one color all over the canvas. Then she'd come back and layer on other colors, and scenes would start to develop. I always had this idea, even from the first time I started writing, that you didn't just sit down and write something, but that you built scenes in stages."