Your Writing Environment....

[RobertEvert]

It's been a while since I've posted here. So if this has been discussed before, please forgive me. I looked, but didn't find anything.

Share your ideas for creating the ultimate writing environment....

For example, my room has to be dark with a desk lamp (full spectrum light bulb, of course) pointing at my crumb-encrusted keyboard. I have to have a hot cup of tea (tea of inquiry or green tea) next to me.

How about you all? What works for you?

[PatriotBlade]

My dream Writing Room, would be small, not well lit, and house my immense, denim upholstered loveseat (it's very cooshy and comfy). It would probably be set catercorner, with a lamp behind it. It would have to have at least one window with a decent view and it would be wallpapered with movie posters, my homemade posters(collections of pictures I like "scrapbook-ed" into poster form), and my framed inspirational sayings. I would have to have a coffee table, probably something sturdy like the one my parents had when I was growing up (my dad made it out of a LARGE piece of driftwood my dad found), a couple candles. This room would also be my "library", so I wouldn't have to go far when I needed to research something for my stories.

[elora]

Hmmm...there's the environment I would lust after and the one I know works.

What I wish would work

A large, airy office, replete with lots of light, comfortable places to work or take break at. Wooden floor boards, carpets, interesting art works and curios, artefacts. Wide expanse of a desk and some sort of perfect chair yet to be invented. Coffee, snacks, nibbles. A whiteboard and flip chart for brain storming. A long leather couch for deliberating. Gigantic middle eastern lanterns and cushions to add an air of mystery to beguile the senses. A huge big window, at least one, preferably many, looking out over some sweeping vista. Sometimes a mountain view down upon the valley, sometimes a sea view out over the tropical nirvana I call home, sometimes a forest view into the ancient antipodean wonders that surround me. Raked ceiling soaring over head. Music floating about, not too loud or soft, and able to be psychically fit to mood to either inspire or drive creative forces.

The depressing reality of what I know works

The less sensory input the better. No sweeping views, no comfy places to kick back, no music, no coffee and snacks to fiddle and procrastinate with. A laptop, usually in my lap. Writing as I sit on the bed, focused with frightening intensity until my head and fingers hurt at the same time. A view, anything picturesque, spells disaster. I can't help myself. I am a visual person. No distractions, no interruptions, no breaks. I can write in this way for hours - an entire day, stretch my aching muscles, and then most of the night.

No one said it had to be good writing.

What ensures it is acceptable writing is collaboration with other writers I have trust and regard for. At least one, no more than three. New ideas, new perspectives, brainstorming and story boarding. So I suppose I would add an itsy bitsy whiteboard to jot down the arc as we throw ideas about.

[jilbo_baggins_revisited]

I like it dark and dreary, all I need is a nice roomy glass desk grouping by a window. The bright white glow of my computer screen serves me well during the day or at night and succeeds in keeping me focused on it. My walls are whitewashed sky blue and there is only one lamp in the room on a far wall, it is mostly used if my printer needs ink refills or to see if my router is online.

There is a small dvd player propped in a corner which I use if I need inspiration or to keep from blacking out if I haven't slept much. Plus a single cup coffee maker - which is essential in my seemingly aimless plight to write

I have alot of writing software so I'd be screwed if the power went out since I don't remember how to use a pencil or pen.

[Cyblade Silver]

I have a fairly stripped-down writing tools: a tablet, some sheets of notebook paper, a ball-point pen, and extra ink cartridges for same. It has the nice bonus of being portable, so I can work in pretty much any room of the house. I do prefer working in a quiet place, though, one by a table that I can set my tablet on.

[Frelga]

Cyblade, do you then type your writing into a digital format, or do you remain loyal to paper?

If I waited for an environment, I'd never finish a sentence. I haven't actually tried to write while hanging upside down from a tenth floor window over a busy street, but I suspect that I could probably manage a few paragraphs before I fainted.

[Cyblade Silver]

I do transcribe what I've got written, when I get the time, yes.

[elora]

Sadly, what I would lust after and what is effective are two vastly different beasts.

To wit:

An effective environment would have no windows for me to gaze out of, no internet or cell reception, moderate light and an ambient temprature of roughly 25c. The sussuration of waves, or any such environmental panaceas, would be out of the question. As would the hammock under the palm tree, the endless supply of exotic cocktails served by beautiful people who don't speak my language and don't care, and the monkey waving a palm frond over my scholarly brow to keep it cool.

Or, in other words: Insight. Sucks.

[prmiller]

I write in bus stops, blizzard beat,
on lawns that seem untouched by heat;
in coffee shops, and noisy bars,
on picnic tables roofed with stars.
I write for this what I am,
while sipping tea with toast and jam,
and pillage tissue boxes, for
I need to rest from colds once more,
yet out comes paper and a pen,
and one brief rhyme turns into ten.

So life is my environment,
for writing things my dreams invent.

...and finding it difficult to leave the poem alone,
I escape,
Parm

[earendil81]

I seem to be a little like parm although I would not be able to phrase it as elegantly/poetically.

I have a little notebook I carry around everywhere with me - courtesy of my husband who offered three to me a couple of xmas ago and I am down to the end of the last one - and I write whenever I can; in the bus/streetcar (if it's not shaky enough otherwise I get nauseous ), subway, in the car (when not driving ), at the office if inspiration strikes and won't leave me alone, or at the coffee shop or restaurant, even when doing tourist visits .
Outside sitting in the grass or inside (like now) on the sofa with music playing on the computer... either way.

I think my favourite place to write remains at my grandparents' house in Provence; whether I write by the swimming pool when it gets too hot or in the shade of the tree by the house or even in the middle of the lavender fields when I decide on a field trip this place has always inspired me. Its peacefulness and serenity, the buzzing of bees and the silence one can find there makes it my perfect space. So sad I haven't been able to go there since summer 2011. Oh well it's life.