There is nothing more important to me when I'm writing than finding the perfect place to hide away. I can't write with distractions, not the kind that talk at you or expect reactions but I like to be surrounded by every day life. My favourite place is the basement in Starbucks. I have a table, the one I always sit at, which is tucked away in a corner under the stairs. It feels like I have a hiding place from which I can peek out at the rest of the world but remain for the most part undisturbed. Now and again people will walk over and ask what I'm writing, especially if they have seen me there every morning but mainly I am the observer and they are the observed.
At home writing is more difficult for me. I have the distractions of people demanding my time and attention, plus all the things that prove writing killers like television, playstation, books..... I have to admit that I'm not the most disciplined or writers, I have the attention span of a small child and broadband has been a curse because I spend a lot of my time surfing websites and checking up on what my favourite celebrities are doing. The flip side of this is that I often find a lot of character inspiration from my rambling internet searches.
One piece of modern techology that has been an absolute blessing for me is my netbook. Now covered in stickers and with a memory faltering underneath numerous draft manuscripts and music videos it is still one of my most treasured possessions and enables me to find the perfect writing place anywhere. I have no boundaries! I am like the gypsy traveller I have always thought I would have quite liked to be, carrying my writing life on my back. I don't have the painted wooden caravan but I have the imagination and is probably even better because tomorrow I might decide I want to live in Ancient Egypt and now I can, sort of, manage it.
x
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