In the spirit of Glasnost

I figured I'd respond to Rishi's post about how people write with a post here, rather than a comment, because it's a subject that quite interests me too. And because I refuse to give a nice short answer. And because I haven't posted here in a while, and this is a good excuse.

Basically, the way I write depends largely on what I'm writing. However, given the question, "how do you write?" I'm most inclined to think immediately of writing essays, theses, you know, academic work. In this case I'll tend to be sitting upright, at my (desktop) computer, surrounded by clutter, with a stack of books lying on my bed beside me. I try to leave the floor around me reasonably clear so that I have some wheeling-around space.

It will usually be afternoon or earlyish evening, rarely after dinner. The window will be open (it usually is) and the blinds will be up (they usually aren't). I won't be playing any music (my putting on a song is usually a sign that I've given up working), but I will have MSN Messenger and Steam open for random distractions, as well as Facebook, webcomics, email sites, and, more recently, Google Reader, all on hand for obsessive checking. I'll usually be pretty much njude, or, if it's cool, wearing a bedsheet, or, if it's quite cold, wearing a blanket.

However, when I'm trying to structure a complicated thought, or searching for the ideal way to phrase something (which happens a lot, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist), this changes quite a bit. I tend to get up from my computer, throw on a dressing gown, and pace up and down the corridor outside my room, usually talking my thoughts out loud. I might work a few hundred words ahead in this manner, making notes on my arms with a pen, and trusting myself to be able to reproduce everything when I get back to the computer... But if I happen to hit upon an absolutely perfect, irreplaceable way to phrase something, or just an incredibly brilliant idea, then I tend to sprint back to the computer and slam it down as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, as the corridor is rarely obstacle-free, and getting from my door to my computer involves dodging a huge iron bed... Well, sudden bursts of inspiration are my leading cause of work-related injuries. I also do a fair amount of this composition-kinda-thing while in the shower, and in bed while trying to sleep. In the latter case, I'll tend to handwrite whatever I come up with, as my computer is off.

Blog posts, on the other hand, are rather different. I'll tend to write them in a semi-reclined position, with my arse on my chair but my legs on my bed. It'll be either after dinner or, occasionally, before breakfast. And I'll often be playing music too. Like, right now, I've got some Dan Deacon going on. Ohhhhhh yeaaaaaaah. Okay, so things aren't quite that different. Everything else is probably more or less the same.

Tooooootally different, though, is when I write poetry or personal letters (though thankfully I haven't done the former in about 3 years; I'm godawful at it). These I'll do exclusively after 10 pm, sitting up against some pillows in bed, handwriting on individual sheets of A4 paper, resting against a nice, large, hard book... Usually The Story Of Philosophy by Bryan Magee. I will have no music playing, but may occasionally take a quick break to play some pertinent song on my EigenPod. Barring that, I'll keep writing either until I'm done, or until I'm stupidly tired, at which point I'll usually brush the pages off my bed, hope they land in some not-totally-scrunchy way, and fall asleep.

So now you know!