Writing Process
here is my writing prompt for today: Tell us about your writing process – do you like music or quiet, is there a special place you go to work, do you type from the beginning or write notes with a pen and paper first?
I can write with music or quiet, though I am usually listening to something gentle. Right now I am listening to Tracy Chapman, but recently I have been listening to Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore, which I like very much. I wasn’t a fan of hers before but I love the new album, it’s a departure for her. I also listen to the Sirius XM station The Coffee House a lot. It’s modern singer-songwriters and acoustic versions of mostly alternative music, which I like very much. It’s good background music. My taste in music has mellowed some. I still love Green Day and My Chemical Romance and Weezer, but it’s not my first go-to any more.
Virginia Woolf wrote about having a “room of one’s own” and my special place to write is definitely “The Femme Cave” which is what I call my writing and crafting room, kitty-corner to Nathan’s office (or as we refer to it, “The Mannex”), and across the hall from our bedroom. My writing area has my reference books, mostly writing and poetry style manuals, but also favorite books by Bradbury (who is my favorite short fiction author) and Anne Lamott, whose nonfiction I like very much. I also have my mindfulness and Hygge collections. I have a short bookshelf to the right of my desk, the bottom of which holds cookbooks. On the second shelf I have three magazine boxes, one with recipe magazines, one with cool magazines I have collected, like The Atlantic and Wired and other subject issues. The third magazine box holds my coloring books, which have also overflowed. The top shelf holds a basket that Phryne and Dot like to sit in, and my planner supplies, as well as my mindfulness binder. The top of that bookshelf holds my printer. My desk holds my laptop, candles, pictures of Nathan and Sam, and my skull mug full of Tul pens. Behind my laptop I keep my vitamins. To the left of my laptop is an Alexa Dot, a landline phone, and a charger stand for my cell pone. There is also a small ‘vornado’ fan. The wall is covered with quotes and pictures. Up on the wall to the left is a wire shelf with paper and supplies and a lamp. On that wall is a long work table where I keep a basket with paperwork and stickers for my planners. That table is where I keep my primary planner. I have a USB port with my headphones and our Galaxy watches. On the end of that table is a box that holds my colored pencils, current coloring projects, and my coloring reference books, mostly about flowers. The closet, next to the table, holds a shelf with blankets and quilts. On the wall behind me is the door and my sleeper-loveseat that folds out to a queen sized bed. There is also a scratching post in the hope that the cats use that mostly and leave the sofa alone. It mostly works. There’s a lamp in the corner, and on the far wall there’s a bookshelf that holds my knitting supplies. There’s a warm faux Turkish rug on the hardwood floor in tones of blue, peach, yellow and grey. It’s a small room, perfect for my needs. I feel cozy and perfectly at home, happy and relaxed here; this is where I write. I have shaped it to my needs and personality.
I’m not much of a note taker or planner when I write, though I keep a moleskine next to my laptop. I compose on the laptop, which is kind of funny because I’m a lousy typist: two fingers all the way. I should have taken typing back in high school instead of using art and music for all my optional courses. But, two fingers seem to work well enough for me. When writing poetry I sometimes keep a list of likely rhymes and line variations. I have been known, and I say this without shame, to use an online rhyming dictionary or thesaurus or style manual when writing. I have the tools, why not? I’m not too proud to admit I use them. When I write fiction, like my story Angela RN, or an essay like Hour of Lead, I will go back and edit and “work on” them… sometimes hours, days, weeks, years after I wrote them originally. My poems are pretty much born whole, though I do putter with them occasionally.
There is a poetry class offered though UW Continuing Studies that I am very keen on taking. I want to keep developing and growing in my writing, and I’d like to get some critiques. Someday I’ll take that class.
How about you? Do you write? Do you have a special room that’s all yours?
