Quote: Dolly Dagger @ April 5 2009, 10:44 PM BSTI can write quite well
We'll be the judge of that!
Where do you write? Page 3
Quote: Lee Henman @ April 6 2009, 1:30 AM BSTInsane.
How do you do that? I must have peace.
I like to have background noise too, music or TV.
I don't like talking noise when writing dialogue - it clashes with hearing the rhythms, like trying to remember a piece of music when another one is playing.
I think I tend to do most of my writing in between hangovers.
Quote: Lee Henman @ April 6 2009, 1:30 AM BSTInsane.
How do you do that? I must have peace.
I grew up in a big noisy family, so I guess I'm just used to it. Right now I'm in a silent library and it's freaking me out. It makes all the little noises around me really annoying and distracting.
Quote: Marc P @ April 6 2009, 8:32 AM BSTWe'll be the judge of that!
I can write some really bad book reviews on amazon if you're not careful. 
And I judge that yes indeed you can write extremely well!
Quote: Marc P @ April 6 2009, 12:46 PM BSTAnd I judge that yes indeed you can write extremely well!
I'll let you off then.
Quote: bigfella @ April 5 2009, 2:21 PM BSTI also seemed to have developed this crazy habit of pressing the send and recive button on the email every 30 seconds. Or check BSG or BBC news it's driving me mad.......
I'm doing that too. I can't stand it.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 5 2009, 5:50 PM BSTI'd love a writing room now, a room which also has no connection to the internet.
No to internet. I just can't. It's impossible.
Personally I find listening to classical music the best. No words, no pictures and pretty relaxing. I really recommend it. It's good for me so I don't know how it would work out for everyone else. But try it and see how you get on. I CAN'T have silence. It feels too weird for me.
I used to trick myself into thinking TV and i-pod music would help me write. It really doesn't no matter how hard I try.
I tend to write at my best around 10pm-2am. Some kind of mini night shift.
I wrote my first published novel on the train - the 1752 from Moorgate. Each day after work I would get there 20 minutes early and crank it out on my little Sony Vaio while the train fills up. For some reason the atmosphere at that place and that time was just right. I have a study now that I work in at home. For a while it was like the "where I write" columns in the Guardian, but a lot more cramped. Now it's a desk and whatever stuff needs to be stored there. I don't need all those mementos and reminders that I can write.
I don't need music either. Music can get my head in the right space, but after that it goes off and I write. Helps to set myself a deadline too. With a full-time job and all the other stuff of life, knowing you have a ritual half an hour at 9pm every evening means your brain will store up a big dump that will pour out in those 30 minutes.
I write in my lounge usually in the evenings when my family are watching TV but I hear a change of environment like going out and writing in a cafe or something gets the creative juices fowing.
I used to like writing in the library, but they've put computers in there now and it's always full of people who look like they can't read. They're always on their mobiles, shouting. Whatever happened to nice peaceful libraries where only slight coughs and murmurs would be tolerated. Sigh.
I listen to the fun lovin criminals when I write, just the right amount of chilled out -ness.
I have some office space and just work from there. Teapot filled with tea and I'm away! If I am really struggling for inspiration or am becoming distracted I leave it or on the rare occasion get drunk, although it doesn't make much sense it can open the mind a little.. not reccomended though on a daily basis.... 
I have this black swivel chair and a folding table/laptop affair. The laptop's about ten years old, and it still works. And if I get bored, I can always get Wedge out for a play and pretend to be Blofeld in the big chair. Albeit with a rat.
I write best first thing in the morning. I normally start about 8, then I can work with focus up until about lunch time.
I do like to write out in the world, among my people. I don't have problems with distraction, as I have scary over-focus like my brain is making its own Ritalin.
Cafes, parks and public transport are great places for pencil work, the fun stuff - one-liners and dialogue. However, for the computer-based graft, I have a converted attic whose distractions are limited to a desk, a coffee machine and nothing else.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 6 2009, 9:14 AM BSTI like to have background noise too, music or TV.
Same.
Always write with music on, or sat in front of the telly.