Though I can read pretty much anywhere, I've found that I can't write in public places. I know plenty of people write happily at coffee shops, or on trains, or in the park, but I just can't do it. I think it's some sort of weird paranoia about someone catching a glimpse of my unedited work.
I was thinking about this today, and it got me wondering about other people's writing routines. I tend to write either at a desk using Big Chimp's iMac, or sitting on the bed against the wall with my laptop on my lap. If I'm sitting at the desk, I have to have my legs up on the chair, sitting pretzel-style. I have a writing playlist of instrumental music (songs with lyrics are too distracting and silence is too oppressive) that I put on random to accompany my typing. It includes a few classical compilations, movie soundtracks, and some Explosions in the Sky albums. I can't write if it's noisy and I can hardly ever write if there is someone else in the room, unless they're doing their own thing—quietly—and facing away from me.
So my question is: what are your writing routines/weird quirks? Do you have a special writing space or a certain type of music that you listen to while you write? And does anyone share my strange fear of writing in public?
I share your dislike of people observing you as you write. Personally it doesn't frighten me so much as annoy me. I generally do not enjoy people overlooking any form of work I am doing, to be quite honest.
ReplyDeleteI generally write with the door closed, and isolated. No wonder I have so few friends :p