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So, Where Do You Write?

August 18, 2008
 Loribelle Hunt: I took over the garage, but the conversion is nowhere near complete yet. It's a disaster right now. Everyone uses it as a junk center.

I know it's Monday, but since I haven't heard from anyone this week, I guess there's no good news out there for my normal This, that and the other thing blog. 

Instead, I have taken a topic that I find fascinating as a reader.  Where do author's write those amazing books that keep me up all night and make me hold off on the housework and grocery shopping (not that I need much of an excuse for that)?  I found a lot of answers on the Romance Diva's forum where this question was asked, along with some interesting photos. (Thanks Divas!)



Julie Hurwitz:  Seriously, I try and get in some writing at work -- especially near the end of the day when the boss is either gone or reading the paper. But I also do a lot of writing at Starbucks or Dennys or Carrows or even the library. I tend to do more and better writing away from the house. 

Fae Sutherland:  Yeah, erm, pay no attention to the action figures having sex on a table on the shelf there...or my obscene lamp. *blinks innocently*


Dana Belfry:  I'm a starbucks and headphones kind of gal. Viva Bose. 



Amanda Brice:  So my writing "office" consists of me and my laptop and wherever I happen to be at the time. Today it's the Alexandria Public Library. Usually it's Panera. Anywhere with a little bit of background noise, teenagers I can observe (yes, I write YA, so it's not as creepy as it sounds), and free wi-fi. 



    
Christine Olinger:  I have a gorgeous office at home... it's empty.  I write at:  Starbucks, Beach

Sela Carson just posted a picture worth a thousand words.

Gwen Hayes:  Couch. laptop. usb stick. 

                                     
Skirbo:  I write at my day job, in my own office where I am constantly interrupted. And I write at home, in a corner of the living room where I am constantly interrupted.  No wonder I never finish anything.









 
Sabrina Brayden:  This is my office. I love writing in here with a nice mimosa to quench my thirst...
No? okay...this is the real thing. In the living room watching the Olympics.






















                                                                                             



There's also a website dedicated to The Writers Cave by author Paige Cuccaio.   "A writer's cave/office/clean space on the kitchen table is that wondrous place where romance, murder, laughter and hearache are conjured every day.  Where heroes are born, and villains lie in wait.  A writer's cave is where magic happens and our adventures begin..."  See where some of your favorite authors pound the keyboard.
 
As for me, it's where ever my laptop is (usually while I'm in bed...sorry, no pictures available).

So, where do you write?

Bottom Line:  It really doesn't matter where you write, it's more important that you do it well.

Posted by Barbara Vey on August 18, 2008 | Comments (38)


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August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Edie Ramer commented:

Barbara and all the writers, thank you for your pictures! It makes me feel normal. I read somewhere that a messy desk means the writer is busy working. That's true for me. My desk is only clean when I'm between books, and that doesn't usually last a day.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Kristen Painter commented:

I have a lovely office - all black furniture, crystal chandelier, touches of cranberry and leopard. Unfortunately, I can only be in there for so long before I get tired of sitting at the desk. Which is why I'm in the living room.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Mel Francis commented:

I have my office area set up in the living room. It's a great little nook. I have to try very hard not to fall into old habits and just pile crap up on my desk because it makes the whole area look sloppy. Of course, that's hard to do when I'm constantly taking stuff away from the pug and placing it on my desk to keep it away from her. LOL




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
AJ commented:

I posted about this on my blog too. I have a desk in my parents front room (i'm 19, so sue me)which is an awful mess. i'm so glad you didn't post my pictures lol.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Emily Ryan-Davis commented:

I'm in the laptop on the sofa camp. Sometimes I even relocate from one end to the other (usually when my cookbooks, research books, and reading books crowd me out).




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
mary s commented:

Everything I write is done at the kitchen table, where I can overlook thru a wonderful "breakfast-nook" window, our garden, birds, flowerbeds, hanging plants & cats on harnesses. If I write on the couch or in bed, I fall asleep too easily! Thanks for this feedback!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Jennifer LaBrecque commented:

I am so lucky! My office is nothing fancy, but it's a sun room so I'm surrounded by windows on three sides and the fourth wall is open to the dining room and kitchen so I don't feel totally isolated from everything.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Mark David Gerson commented:

I have a home office, but I rarely use it for writing. I'm more likely to write in the living room, at the table in my breakfast nook or in a cafe. That's if I'm on my laptop. I have been known to write longhand pretty much anywhere -- including in the car.<br><br>Mark David<br>www.markdavidgerson.com




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Ember commented:

My office keeps moving - every time I find a "quiet" corner, the kids migrate there with all their toys and clutter. And noise.

I'm back in the library again this month, and with school starting today hope I can keep them out of it for good. I need a handyman to hang a door with a lock, so the determined little munchkins can't creep in on me when I'm not lookig.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Sela Carsen commented:

You know what's sad? The only thing that's changed since I took that photo is that I took the empty snack bowl to the kitchen. Well, that plus the camera that I took the photo with is under a fresh pile of paper. I should dig that out. ;-)




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
December G commented:

I have a spare bedroom, with a computer corner.
It's perfect for me.
LOL - not sure if anything I do is done WELL... errgg..




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Diana Castilleja commented:

I have a lovely office, a tad cluttered, but with French doors from the rest of the rest of the house. And ear plugs. LOL




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Shari Anton commented:

I have an office with all of the appropriate equipment. That's my editing, revising, business room. The actual writing gets done on pads of paper or with the laptop on the kitchen table, out on the deck, in the recliner in the living room -- wherever :).




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Crystal Jordan commented:

I have a cushy vintage pink tweed chair, an ottoman, and a laptop. It gets the job done.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Adelle Laudan commented:

I share my desk space with our dining room. I like to have it in a location where I can keep an eye on 2 teenage daughters lol They use the laptop here too. No taking it to their bedrooms.. yikes!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Marilyn AKA The Playground Monitor commented:

When we moved 3 years ago, it was with the condition I got an office. So the 3rd bedroom is mine. I have my desk and computer plus a nice comfy futon where I can sit and read. I can't work for long on a laptop keyboard, so mostly I write at the desk. But I've been known to write longhand. I just wish I could write more regardless of where I'm doing it. Lately the Olympics have been too much of a distraction. But I had to watch our hometown girl win a bronze and silver in swimming, didn't I?




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
gwen hayes commented:

I am always amazed by people who can write longhand.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Shelli Stevens commented:

Great pics and I love seeing where everyone writes! I write in my bed at night on my laptop. :) Kid's asleep and I can finally think!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
HOLLY JACOBS commented:

Barbara,

I do have a lovely office, but more often than not, I write on the laptop on the couch in the family room. The dogs (Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald) like to sit next to me while I work and prefer it that way!

Next week school begins here, which means it's just me, the dogs and my laptop all day long!!

Holly Jacobs




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Kat B commented:

I have a teenager, you see. With a teenager you pick your battles. I'm sure that somewhere in the pile of random papers and discarded text books exist the essence of the desk I once thought would be perfect. In the mean time, I use a poor-man's laptop: a steno pad. I know, I actually have a laptop I could use. But after years of using the poorman's version, I just can't get the "flow" right if I use keys as opposed to ink.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Gemma Halliday commented:

I write at an old antique newspaper desk. I love the idea that countless other writers and journalists have sat here banging their heads over their stories, too.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Lynn Raye Harris commented:

I have a lovely office with bookshelves, my iMac, and some chairs (getting a couch soon, I believe). In fact, I had an interview recently and the photographer wanted to see my office. He complained it was too clean (yes, I'd cleaned it up knowing he was coming and wanted shots in here). He envisioned papers everywhere, piles of manuscripts, etc. Well, it WAS like that, ha!

Ultimately, we did everything in my living room anyway. The office was too clean, LOL!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Michelle Styles commented:

I mostly write in my study. Thankfully we have just had the fireplace opened up (it was blocked up in 1951) and I am looking forward to writing with a warm fire come the autumn. It will save my fingers going blue.
If I am writing away from my desk, I write longhand in a moleskine notebook (if it was good enough for Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin,Van Gogh and Piccasso...). There is a certain something about seeing the ink flow on the page. The pages are acid free and its fits in my handbag... It also means that various relations always know what to get me as a gift...




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS commented:

I used to write in a large added-on "office-library" with an office cubicle in one corner and a 10-foot tall central built-in bookcase and second story bookshelves reached by a Putnam rolling ladder.

The heating/cooling costs got too high so I moved into a cozy corner in the main living area. I can still see my old "digs" through the sliding glass doors, and, to define the new "office," I got a folding screen with wooden shutter slats I can program to give more or less privacy.

In both places I have my six department store mannequins on duty in clothes from my vintage collection. (I use vintage clothes in both my mystery and urban fantasy series.)

The "girls" are six feet tall and have shoulders as wide as linebackers. If anyone broke in here in the dark of night, he'd see their silhouettes and run away ASAP.

I wrote for several years on deadline in a common newspaper office, so I can concentrate anywhere, but I'm happiest with my cats and the ladies around me.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Dana Belfry commented:

The laptop was the best invention ever. It gives us so many options for where we can write, edit, etc.

The world is my office!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Carol Ericson commented:

I tried a laptop in the living room - didn't work. After years of working as a tech writer, I get most of my writing done in my home office sitting at a desk in front of my computer. How boring! Just doesn't feel right to work any other way.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
MonicaBurns commented:

Ok, you're gonna think I'm nuts, but I write in our travel trailer. I've got a mini-me office set up there with the bare bone necessities. It's perfect for me because the noise insulation is great, there's no phone, the family stays away from the door, and it's comfortable at the dining table. It's the perfect office away from office I've found! LOL




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Becky Barker commented:

Hi Barbara -- Interesting topic. I've done longhand on my own lap, an electronic typewriter on the kitchen table and finally moved up to a nice office with my trusty computer. I'm old as dirt. LOL!

Becky
www.BeckyBarker.com




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Patricia Sargeant commented:

Barbara, great topic!

Holly, I write on my laptop while sitting on the couch in my family room, too. LOL! But I love looking at Paige Cuccaro's Writers Cave to see where my other favorite authors write.




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Cassandra Curtis commented:

I am so draggin' the hubby in here to see these photos! I am not messy. I'm just a writer! :P




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Barbara Vey commented:

Monica Burns, the travel trailer sounds great and I bet there's even a place to nap!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
LoriFoster commented:

Awesome blog, Barbara, as always!
Aren't Paige's cave photos too cool? I was honored to be included.LOL

Have a happy week everyone!

Lori




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Saralee Etter commented:

My summer writing spot is on the deck, under the market umbrella--a jug of tea, a working laptop, and my imagination under 60-foot ash trees. Yeah, I'd say it's paradise enow.
In the winter I am stuck in the basement. LOL Saralee




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Jenna Bayley-Burke commented:

At the moment...I'm writing on the couch with the laptop while the boys wrestle on the floor and the baby is in the swing...I'm only fact checking on the internet...I swear!




August 18, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Patrice Michelle commented:

I have an office, but most of the time I write on the couch. LOL! Laptops...gotta love 'em. :)




August 19, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Marcia James commented:

I have a bright corner office on the second floor of my home. I cleaned it up for the photo I sent to Paige Cuccaro for her Writer's Cave page. ;-) I'm usually drowning in paper, but I didn't want my sloppy desk mixed into photos of offices from Janet Evanovich, etc., on Paige's site!
-- Marcia James ;-)




August 19, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
violet s commented:

Good morning Barbara! I have a wonderful rolling table I take in the bedroom & livingroom to read & write! Horizontal or vertical, I can do both!




August 19, 2008
In response to: So, Where Do You Write?
Missy Taylor commented:

I write at home or at work. I can't work where there is a lot of noise. I can't have music playing. Silence and my muse...





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