Where do I write? Where does the light hit me perfectly, the background sounds common enough they don’t distract me wondering what they are, and where my words all come together to build that great scene? Finding the right spot to get words to paragraphs when the muse visits is key to a healthy writing habit.

I have a small studio, best described as—well, small. I’m surrounded by 136 writing books … some actually in a bookcase, others I dip into for encouragement or answers. These books-in-action are stacked on the floor on either side of my desk chair. Author Heather Sellers, in Chapter after Chapter, calls them wisdom guides! 

On my desk, two printers flank the screen effectively squeezing out most everything else. The stapler, modem, and router heroically fight gravity to stay on board as I turn notebook pages from my WIP notebook. I like to write first in a notebook, then enter the text into my document. The challenge is finding a place to rest the notebook so it doesn’t hit the keyboard. Why the stapler? Seems it would be handy to organize pages together? I really don’t know. But every time I put it into the drawer, I need the darn thing.

Writing under Carolina Blue skies also is an option. Outside, in a quiet garden area, sometimes even in my PJs (shhh) there is nothing better. Do I accomplish my daily goal out there? Mostly, yes. Unless the wonderful fragrance between hyacinths and lilacs wafts from the Butterfly bush, and takes me completely out of my story and into nature.

Now I may get moonbeams about a character or plot away from these two locations, but I quickly jot the idea down and seriously pursue it back at my writing place. Some writers create in a cafe, airport, library, car or bus. Doesn’t work for me. And where else but in my studio would I get the completely random, adrenalin-producing pounce our Maine Coon cat, Copy, delivers? Believe me, that changes my point of view like nothing else!

Getting the great words down in quantity is all that matters, though. Writers write. Where do you write?