Does Environment Impede Writing?

[Philip Overby]

This is something I've been thinking about as of late when running across newer writers. I'm curious about how the environment you surround yourself with can change your ability to write or even impede it. If you spend most of your time on the internet (social media, forums, blogs) are you limiting your ability to write? Is me even writing this post taking time away that I could be spending writing?

I suppose there are lots of distractions built into our lives that pull us away from things we may rather be doing. I was thinking about something I heard Brian Stavely say about writing his first book. He said he lived in Laos and Mongolia and basically all he did was go on walks and write. Since he knew no one else and had very little access to technology, it allowed him to completely immerse himself in his writing. This was (I believe) after saving up money from his day job and deciding to just live off the grid for a bit. Also being outside of his comfort zone allowed him to explore and actually gain inspiration from his surroundings. Not to say the internet doesn't have a wealth of information. It does. It's invaluable. But hearing from someone "I got inspired by this" and actually saying from experience "I got inspired by this" are certainly two different things.

I understand with family, bills, money, etc. that it's not always easy to just go off and be somewhere "away from it all." But wouldn't the occasional writer's retreat allow you to just get away from all the noise and just write? How about just checking into cheap motel for the weekend and writing? Or would the pressure that "I should be writing right now" be too much?

I wonder about these things sometimes because I feel like I'm a (pretty?) productive writer for the most part. Sometimes I wonder the amount of work I'd get done if I just lived somewhere with no technology for one month.

It's hard to say I guess because there have been writers in the past that were very well off (one way or another) and had all the time in the world to write and did so. But there are others who lived in squalor that struggled every day and pinched pennies to make it. I sometimes wonder what the better option for me would be.

Anyway, just thinking.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I do some of my best writing at a little cafe nearby which does not have free wifi. I go there in the afternoon in the hour before they close when it's not so busy.
I still use my phone to check FB etc even there, but not as much as I would if I sat at my computer desk back home. What's funny is that even when I'm there and I don't have internet access, I still occasionally press Alt+Tab, to swap over to my web browser. It's a habit I've formed that whenever my writing goes into a lull or my brain takes a break I have a quick look at the web.

I've toyed with the idea of renting a cabin out in the countryside for a week and do some writing there, but I'm low on holiday days this year so it will have to be another time. I think it might be a great thing to do, but I doubt I'll get very much done the first day or two.

There's also a pub I like to go to for my writing. It does have internet access, but since I'm out among people I'm a lot more reluctant to browse the web where people can see me. Being in view of other people who might be watching what I'm doing is sort of an incentive for me to keep doing what i'm supposed to be doing - not that they know, but still. I guess it's similar to signing in and out for the writing hour every day.

 

[Penpilot]

I think there's a pavlovian association we have with our environments. Home is for relaxing. Work is for working. Ever notice how comfortable and relax you can feel just by stepping in that front door after a hard day? Or how when you sit down at work and within a few minutes you're hard at work? Ever step into an old familiar place like an ice rink and just get the tingles to play hockey?

For me I try to get out of the house, to the library, to McDonalds. I make a routine out of it, and I set a time limit. As soon as I sit down at those places, within minutes I can be writing, and I keep writing until either I finish a section or I run out of time.

At home, I find it easier to give in to distractions. I can write at home, but I find that when I do this too often my computer area becomes the work area, and my desire to play video games tends to go down. The area doesn't get associated with entertainment any more.

I think the trick for me, and maybe others, is to find/make a dedicated writing area at home.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The Starbucks in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong—which narrows it down to three Starbuckses, so I mean the one by the waterfront. That's where I wrote the poem that led to my first book. Once I started my day job, I often wrote at Pacific Coffee in Kowloon Bay, where they played the White Album daily. There was a day on my rotation (teaching in HK) that I didn't have any classes, so I got a lot done on that day. The most I've ever written in one sitting was at the Starbucks at Queen Mary hospital on December 28, 2007. I wrote 6,000 words, and had my daughter been born while I was writing, I probably wouldn't be allowed to write anymore. Luckily, Amelia was born on the 29th, and I didn't repeat the mistake of bringing my laptop into a coffee house with no cell phone reception while my wife is in (a really, really long) labor. I wrote the last chapter in the U.S.

So, yeah, coffee houses was where I wrote when I lived in Hong Kong. Now I just write at home when I can. I was cooler when I wrote my first book. Of course, when I went to HK this summer, it was next to impossible to sit down at a Starbucks. I'll take the boring American way of life. It has more chairs. I need them to write.



So to summarize, 7 years ago: coffee houses; now: a chair.