Writing is one of the few occupations that aren’t tied to a particular place and time. It’s something that you can do anywhere, any time, if you want to. So I used to find it odd to hear so many writers talk about their desks and offices (and I thought it was especially odd that some writers actually went out and rented office space. Why spend money when you didn’t need to?).
A lot of this bemusement was because I started writing my first (unfinished) novel when I was in 7th grade. Literally in 7th grade – during the class. Sister Mary Louise never quite caught me; it was occasionally obvious that I wasn’t quite paying attention, but she never seemed to figure out why I wasn’t paying attention.
Starting off that way was excellent practice for the writing I did in college – at the library, outside in the arboretum, in the cafeteria, in the dorm elevator, in class, even sometimes in my dorm room with my three roommates talking on the other side of the big room we shared. Which, in turn, was excellent practice for the writing I did when I got out of school and got my first job, which once again was mostly in the company cafeteria, in coffee shops, on the bus (though not often; it was too hard to decipher the results), in restaurants, and, occasionally, on the dining room table in my one-bedroom apartment.
In other words, I started out writing anywhere and everywhere that I could carry a notebook and pen, mostly regardless of other conditions. Okay, I didn’t try to write outside in the rain, or in places where it got cold enough to make my fingers stiff, or in the dark, but basically, I didn’t worry too much about where I was working or what else was going on around me. I’d learned to block it out, so that I could grab writing minutes whenever and wherever they happened to occur.
And then I got a house, and a computer, and set up an office to write in. It worked well for a long time, but gradually, I came to realize some things:
1. Having an office is great, because if you go there every day and write, your backbrain gets used to thinking “Hey, we’re at the computer in the office; must be time to write!” and you start getting more productive after a while.
2. Having an office is terrible, because it trains your backbrain to only write when you’re in your office, so you stop grabbing those minutes at the bus stop or the coffee shop or the dentist’s waiting room, even if you have a cool new iPad that you can take everywhere (with a nifty app that lets you scribble notes right on it) just the way you used to take your paper and pen. Also, your frontbrain starts using “I’m not in the office” as an excuse to not-write. Like you need another excuse.
3. Having an office is really terrible, because the minute you start doing things in it that aren’t writing (like paying bills and answering e-mail and searching the web and playing FreeCell and Civilization), your backbrain decides that maybe it’s not such a great place to write after all, and now you don’t have anywhere that your backbrain likes writing.
4. Fixing points 2 and 3 is really hard. Especially #3. It takes time and energy and application.
Once I realized all that, I figured that despite the fact that time, energy, and application are all in chronically short supply in my life, I had better get busy on fixing things so that I could maybe get back to #1 again. I started off by getting back in the habit of hauling writing implements around with me wherever I go, and using them, even if only for a few seconds. “Writing implements” used to mean paper and pen; now it means iPad or laptop, but it’s the same old principle. The laptop turns out to be a little clunky for grabbing quick minutes – mine’s several years old, and takes long enough to warm up and shut down that if I only have a sentence or so to grab and a minute to grab it with, it’s not the right tool. So my iPad has become my notebook-of-choice for wandering around.
The next thing I did was to start taking advantage of time-chunks that were already built into my day. Three days a week, I go walking with my friend Beth, and afterwards we stop for coffee (tea, in my case). So now I haul the laptop along, and when she goes off to work, I stay in the coffee shop, plug in the laptop, and get an hour or so of work done before I leave. For larger chunks of non-office writing time, the laptop is perfect…plus, I’ve gotten myself in the habit of dumping my writing session onto the flash drive I carry on my keychain before I pack up to leave, which a) makes it easy to transfer to the desktop when I get home and b) means I have my most recent data backed up and with me at all times.
And then I started making new chunks – nipping out to the library in the afternoon, stopping somewhere that has a bench and an electrical outlet on my way home from shopping, etc. All of which got me to stop using the “I can’t write now; I’m not in the office” excuse.
Getting the office back to being a primary writing environment is going to be a lot harder, because the e-mail isn’t going to stop coming, the research and blogging have to be done, and there’s no point in taking Civilization off the computer when I know perfectly well that if I do, I will just put it right back on the minute I get the urge. (My sister borrowed one of my games once…and I went out and bought a second copy because I was in the mood to play and I couldn’t wait for her to return it. I am hopeless.)
So I have to come up with balancing writing in the office with all the other things I have to do there. I’m starting small – when I return from a laptop session at the coffee shop, I’m now in the habit of immediately transferring the files from the flash drive to the main hard drive, and then opening the file to check over what I did. Usually, that means I write a few lines more, which always makes me feel smug and virtuous (because I generally get my day’s word count done at the coffee shop, so those extra lines are gravy).
Thanks for sharing about your writing process. I should learn to make the most of every spare moment too. 🙂
I just recently started taking the time where I used to check Twitter/FB to now write a line or two. Even if I only have five minutes, I figure it’s better to spend that five minutes productively. And oddly enough, the world doesn’t stop revolving the minute I take a break from watching it!
Of course, I’m also getting really good at ignoring things like dishes and sweeping and the mountain of clean laundry that is threatening to erupt like Vesuvius in favor of writing. Which is … not always so good.
I’ve thought about the little moments, but I’m good with my current schedule. I write 4 days a week and am producing more than I have in my life.
In the summer I hope to get a Galaxy phone and I’ll use those little dead moments of time for the marketing side of the writing biz.
I tend to write on my couch, since there’s no room in my house for a real office. I also sometimes add a paragraph or two when I have idle time at work. If I’m not near a computer, I’ll sometimes scribble notes to myself about characters or plot ideas.
I do someday want an office, but I think that’s so that I have the option of writing there, and so I can keep all the writing related stuff (records, references, etc.) in one place.
I wrote my first novel in high school. 🙂 No teacher ever caught me. I’d keep two sheets of paper on my desk–one for class notes and one for the story I was working on, and I’d just move back and forth between the two. I no longer have the ability to multitask quite that effectively anymore! But it got me a lot of pages written…and kept me from zoning out completely in dull classes.
Now I usually carry a book around for all those spare moments, and try to find bigger chunks of time for writing. I love the advice about adding writing time into an existing routine!
Ah, Civilization, the curse of modern civilization!
When I am very rich, I will have multiple computers, and indeed multiple rooms for them to live in. Only one of them will have Civ on it.
While I am not very rich, the computer in my study has multiple wallpapers. One of them sports a portrait of somebody much resembling my main character, looking outwards at me in a marked manner.
It’s not much of a separate place, but it’s awful cheap, and it’s a start.
Your fans will now follow you around, trying to steal your keys/flashdrive. 😉
I wrote all through High School, (and most of Jr. High). And I did eventually get caught — by one of my chemistry teachers.
I told him that it was like doodling, and it wouldn’t hurt my work. And how could he argue? I was getting A’s in Chemistry — one of the top students in his class. So mostly he just shook his head in bafflement. >:)
If any of my other teachers figured out why I was always scribbling away, they never bothered to say anything.
My latest story was also written anywhere I happened to be, proving that it isn’t something I’ve lost the knack for. Unfortunately it was also written in the same medium I used as a teen –pen and paper. I now have a stack of 800+ handwritten pages, I’m going to have to transcribe. ::sigh::
I feel better knowing someone else is tempted to play Civilizations instead of write, too. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my writing laptop is a mac so my copy of Civ doesn’t work well on it.
I use my iPhone to write often and always carry pens and paper with me.
I can never throw away my notes from classes or meetings because I always end up with lines and story ideas in the margins.
Maybe you’ve tried this already, but what about setting up a separate writing account on the computer? Now that I’m away in college and my personal laptop has had to take over as the place where I answer email, type up notes, do anything to avoid actually doing any work etc. etc. etc. I’ve sent up a whole different account with a different name/sign on, where the only thing I let myself do on it is write (and check blogs, of course…)- there are no lists or games or anything on the desktop except for stories that I’m working on.
linda – You’re welcome.
Louise – Sounds like a good system.
Alex – It sounds as if you have a much more predictable schedule than I do. I’m jealous. 😉
Anju – If I try writing on the couch, with laptop or with keyboard, Cazaril cat comes and sits on it. Repeatedly. In the office, I at least have one of those keyboards that slides under the desktop, so he can’t get at it (though he still tries).
Cheryl – I’ve never been that good at multitasking. Focus, now, that I can do…
Gray – I’m not visual enough to be able to pick out pictures of my characters, though I know plenty of other writers who do this, but I’ve had occasional luck with old maps, if I’m writing something that appears to belong in that time/area. For the current WIP, though, most of the map should just show “here be dragons” (literally), so it doesn’t do me a lot of good. And I don’t think the next book will have anything suitable; all three of the current top contenders aren’t set in places that have actual maps, and I’m not artistically inclined enough to do a useful one on my own.
Ulrike – Since I’m currently using an obsolete word-processor (from 1997!) with a proprietary format that I switch into *.rtf when I finish with the file, I’m not sure stealing my flash drive will be any use to anyone. 🙂
Michelle – I didn’t have nearly as much trouble in high school; I’d gotten a lot better at looking like I was properly busy by then, and none of the teachers had me in class for more than an hour at a time, so it was easier. In grade school, though, we had one nun who taught the whole day, and getting away with anything was…not easy.
Reesha – I very carefully haven’t put Civ on my laptop. Which may be another part of why I’m currently getting more writing done in coffeeshops than at home…
Nicole – As long as I’m only a couple of mouse-clicks away from the game, it won’t help. I have NO willpower when it comes to games.
I am surprised no one mentioned this. It’s almost embarrassing. I have a notebook with my WIP that I take almost anywhere with me (except work…. I work in an elementary school, nuf said). But my most productive times are at the doctor’s office (skads of time to compose paragraphs) or … in the bathroom. Private. No one comes after you (if there is a second one in the house). You are usually forgiven for not answering the phone, getting the door, etc. It shuts off the spouse’s TV (he’s hard of hearing). It shuts out almost everything, including the cats, if you have shut the door tightly.
BTW This is the most helpful site I have yet encountered insofar as writing tips, selling tips, and anything else to do with the writing business. Thanks!!! And I love your novels, Ms. Wrede! They are in my books to keep and read over again, between Andre Norton’s and Robert Heinlein’s.
You might take a look a dropbox.com. It’s easier than putting stuff on and off a flash drive.
Yes, Pat, I work 5 hours a day mid-afternoon so get out of the house in the morning and write before going into work. Then on Fridays, I work in the morning and take the afternoon off.
If I didn’t have the job to force me to fit the writing in around it, I’m sure I wouldn’t be much less productive.