A Sense of Doubt blog post #3567 - WRITING: Where and How We Do it (or Don't)

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3567 - WRITING: Where and How We Do it (or Don't)


If I had a treehouse, I would write in it all the time.

Or the blister from the Millennium Falcon jutting out of the top floor of a house overlooking the ocean.

I have written about this issue before (two posts to follow), but one of my favorite authors and people, Warren Ellis, recently wrote of where and how we write and shared his experience visiting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing shed, which I now want to visit the next time I am in England.

I also added two new categories that I hope to add more posts to soon: Writing Places and Treehouses.

I added some other writing places, including Neil Gaiman's cool writing cottage.

I wish I had a treehouse to write in.

However, since I do not, and no good tree for putting it in, I may rent one for my next writer's retreat.

Thanks for tuning in.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3431 - Writing with notebooks, in layers, and Blogging with Cory Doctorow

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2003 - Writers Writing

https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/high-end-treehouse-north-carolina-mountain-retreat-sits-above-the-clouds/

Singing And Crying Orbital Operations for 10 November 2024

OPERATIONS

THE EXPECTATION OF WRITING

Here’s the thing. You’ve got your writing space. Your office, desk, side table, lapboard, whatever. And you have to write things today. So you sit down, turn on your writing machine, and… nothing happens. Three hours later, nothing has continued to happen. It’s just not coming out today. It’s in your head, the story, but it’s not making its way to your fingers. Or maybe the piece is just a jumble of fragments and intents and it’s not coming together in any pleasing way.

Sitting down at your writing place creates an expectation of writing. And guess what? Sometimes you’re not going to meet that expectation. But it’s the expectation that keeps you pinned in your seat, doing nothing.

Arthur Conan Doyle had a writing shed at his home in East Sussex, but it seems he would occasionally bop over to Groombridge in Kent and get some work done in the Drunken Garden there. There used to be a structure on the Groombridge grounds filled with paraphernalia from his visits. I once sat at the desk and wrote a note there myself, just to try and make a connection.

Obviously you and I don’t have friends with manor houses and a thousand acres of garden.

The usual advice is to go for a walk. But not all of us have access to that. Nipping out for a stroll is a whole different task if you need to get the wheelchair or walking aids out. And then, if inspiration strikes, you have to find someplace where you can write it down. It’s awkward ask. But underlying it is the useful notion: change where you are. Get away from the place that asks its expectation of you.

Change places. Go and sit outside. Sit in a different room. Keep a notebook to hand but keep it closed. Don’t create expectation, just keep it handy in case something comes to you. You could always get a notes app for your phone, or use one that’s baked in, but I generally find them a bit janky. You don’t have to get a notes app, though. You’ve already got one on your phone. It’s called your email app. I send emails to myself all the time. The letter I sent about nine panel grid the other week? I threw most of that down in an email, in around thirty minutes of frantic thumb-typing while sitting downstairs with a cat in my lap.

Sometimes I go and sit outside, or in a different room. I’ll clear a room, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, maintain the garden a bit, read a book. Productive, but not bound to the demands of writing. Writing will creep in around the edges.

Everyone develops their own process from escaping the expectations of the writing desk on a crap day.

And don’t treat it like a defeat. 99.999% of us have those days. Listen to Haruki Murakami:

Writers who are blessed with inborn talent can write easily, no matter what they do—or don’t do. Like water from a natural spring, the sentences just well up, and with little or no effort these writers can complete a work. Unfortunately, I don’t fall into that category. I have to pound away at a rock with a chisel and dig out a deep hole before I can locate the source of my creativity. Every time I begin a new novel, I have to dredge out another hole. But, as I’ve sustained this kind of life over many years, I’ve become quite efficient, both technically and physically, at opening those holes in the rock and locating new water veins. As soon as I notice one source drying up, I move on to another. If people who rely on a natural spring of talent suddenly find they’ve exhausted their source, they’re in trouble.   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/09/haruki-murakami-the-running-novelist

That’s most of us.

https://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/the-treehouse-writing-studio/




https://writingyourlife.org/tag/treehouse/


https://www.7x7.com/bay-area-treehouses-2452858965.html




https://www.enjoyillinois.com/explore/listing/ten-acre-treehouses-1/

https://www.wellappointeddesk.com/2014/07/neil-gaimans-writing-shed/


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2411.23 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3431 days ago & DAD = 087 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.