Where is the best place to write? That all depends. Where does your mind “get right?” Do you need silence or white noise? Is it easier for you to write during the day or at night? Maybe you get up early and write before you go to work, or perhaps you’re a night owl and write after everyone’s in bed.
It’s really a personal choice, and the answers are varied as the people who write.
It can be a battle just to find time to write.
The In Print Writer’s Group had a writer’s retreat earlier this year, where around 30 people sat at tables with their laptops. To have eight hours of time to write, just write, was fantastic. Some people worked on a prompt for the Prompt Club, some people worked on a current manuscript, some people edited or wrote poetry.
Some people walked and/or talked outside. Perhaps they found their creativity was stunted. Daydreaming, plotting, brainstorming, thinking, communing with nature… that, too, is a part of writing. Some writers are just as hard at work walking a bike path on a sunny day as the writer sitting at a desk, pecking away at a keyboard. There are many dimensions to the creative process.
JK Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter books in a café, and indeed says it’s one of the most perfect places to write, because “the phone doesn’t ring.”
Others are lucky enough to have offices to go into and write. They have a balance in their office they’ve worked hard to create—a window to look out of, stickies up on the wall reminding them of the plot, plaques reminding them to write.
Some go to a library, because the cubbies there have you facing a wall. No distractions there. Put on a pair of headphones, turn on your IPod, and you’re on your way to a best selling manuscript.
There is actually no wrong way. If you’re writing, you’ve already won.
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