AJ Collins Short Stories and Articles

AJ Collins Short Stories and Articles

Where do you write?

TC where do you write

I do it on the patio with TC

Where do you write? I once tried to do it in the bath. I visualised a leisurely, relaxed activity. I sat my iPad on a chair so I could reach over and type thoughts as they came to me. Dumb idea. Uncomfortable, wet-fingered, yoga-twisting awkwardness is what resulted. At least I can say I’ve tried it.

My favourite place to write is on our tiny front patio under a sun umbrella with one of our two cats supervising (see pic). That’s TC. He keeps his opinions to himself, even when I ask for them. He’s stubborn (or wise) like that. If he had opposable thumbs so he could bring me coffee he’d be purrrfect.

In bed first thing in the morning before distractions set in, is an incredibly productive option. Night time in bed doesn’t really work for me as I’m not a pen and paper girl and I have a noise-averse hubby (key taps can sound like whack-a-mole in the dead of the night) whose day job pays the mortgage and buys cat food. Fair enough, I need to eat too.

I’ve been told Hemingway liked to stand at a chest of drawers near a window in his bedroom, to write. *Goes off to visit good friend Google * True, it seems, and Hemingway wasn’t alone: Kierkegaard, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Vladimir Nabokov and Virginia Woolf were also fans of the vertical stance. Personally, I find being seated on my well-padded butt quite satisfactory for a writing position. The art is hard enough without tiring oneself out physically as well as mentally. Having said that, I’ll probably give it a try because I can.

So where else? I used to frequent a Borders Café to write. Sadly, it’s long gone now. It was perfect for eavesdropping on conversations—essential for picking up nuances in dialogue—and being surrounded by books has a settling effect on me. The tasty coffee and banana bread was a bonus. Your local library is always available for a quiet, disruptive-free zone. Again I think it’s the books thing, plus being around like-minded others with a similar energy is inspiring. Try it. If you get stuck writing you can always read and that’s just as productive.

The weirdest place I’ve written? Not so much weird as tense: making notes by flashlight, in a Far North Queensland community sports centre, with a category 5 cyclone in full force. With no power and a flat iPad battery, I had to resort to pen and paper. I felt terribly ‘authentic’, like an on-the-scene reporter, if that isn’t too wanky a concept.

If you choose to write while up a tree, on the loo, or on a pull-down tray in an aeroplane, do what works for you; words on the page is the aim. Your readers will never know.

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