We've done your desk, now HOW do you work?

[Anareth]

I've had it brought to my attention I'm weird in this respect. Not only can I NOT work in total silence (at least not without pacing, needing to read instead, and general inability to focus--studying in a library in college always took me three times as long as in my own room with the TV on) music is insufficient. I've decided the problem with it is it's too regular a sound. The radio is okay, the TV is better, sometimes I throw in a CD on my headphones to go with the TV or radio. I can't do just one thing at once--I'm always writing and reading and watching TV/listening to music. I can't understand people who can't talk and follow what's going on on TV at the same time, or who can't read and talk on the phone at the same time. If I'm writing, there MUST be noise, and it MUST at least in part be irregularly-patterend noise like human speaking voices.

So how much of a lone ranger am I in this? What working conditions do you need?

[Madrigal]

I don't need anything. I can and have worked in daycare rooms, surrounded by screaming toddlers; red-eye flights, where it's very quiet but also very cramped; airports, where it's loud and often smells weird; my own room, with or without music or radio; in a tent in the woods; you get it.

[Jorine]

Most of my 'how' is in the "what's on your desk" thread -why did I just have a flash of a hundred Nordic men wielding battle-axes bursting into the room (Visa commercials, nevermind).

I haven't written anything since July so I've almost forgotten how. I don't write during the school semester or else I will lose focus, stop studying, and go live in my own little fantasy world. That is not very good for your grades. I can't wait to graduate from college and have all the time I need to write - I'm going to be a math teacher and I know that's a busy job, but I have it on good authority (all the teachers I've spoken to over the last 2 years) that college is about 20 times as intense as actually working.

If I am writing at home , one of the prerequisites for me to sit down and write is a clean house. I still have the guilts my mom put in me to do your chores before you go play. So I don't feel comfortable sitting there writing if I can't smell furniture polish and glass cleaner and KNOW that everything sparkles (were it not for that last bit, I'd just spritz some Windex in the air and start writing!)

I start by daydreaming - playing "what if" - when my reverie is startled (usually after about five minutes - three if the kids are home) I'll write down whatever I just dreamed up, and that is usually enough to get me started so that I can daydream and write at the same time. It just takes on a life of its own at that point. The daydreaming at the beginning is where I tie up any loose ends from my last session - like having your computer run a scan-disk to look for problems before you do anything.

[granath]

I haven't written any fiction yet, but I can so totally relate to noise. It's absolutely impossible for me to work in total silence. When I wrote my master's thesis (only thing published so far, even if it's only the uni library system), I'd have the TV and CD player on at the same time. Now I do translation work at home, and I can listen to anything except speech. Vocal or instrumental music makes no difference.

However, I only clean house if it's to put off something I want to do even less... :eek:

[Lara]

I can work in noise if I have to: I just phase it out, block it completely. I would much rather, however, work in total silence - or to natural sounds, such as a rushing stream, rainfall or birdsong. Music is an utter no-no. If there is music, I listen to it - it's never just a background noise. But there you are, I tend to do whatever I'm doing 150%!

[Tabra]

I can't work in silence either. I write much better with the radio on to a volume that I can hear it properly or with Avril Lavigne blasting in my ears. Not sure why, but I've written one novel and 77k of the second to Ms Lavigne.

[Kater]

I usually have to have something on in the background. Once I really get started I tend to relegate it to the back burner but there must be some noise whether it be the TV, radio, or the iTunes on my computer playing in the background. I find that if I'm playing music it needs to be something I can sing along to even if I don't sing along while I'm writing, that way if I pause to try and figure out where to go next I can sing or hum while I'm thinking. Right now my favorite background music is the broadway musical Wicked.

[Lady Legira]

I must have music or a sounds of some destricption, I can't stand silence not even when I'm having a cup of coffee! :)

[AnnMarie]

I MUST have music when transfering my work from looseleaf to computer....

I need some sort of noise, usually, when writing... unless I get one of those "fits" that has me writing at 2 am.... then it can be quiet.....

[McClance]

I tend to prefer listening to music while I write, though I can manage without, I just get distracted easily if I don't have music.

I also tend to write in bursts, the length of which varies depending on the intensity of the subject. If I'm at a real tense point in my story, I tend to write quicker, though I guess that's the same with a lot of people.

As for the point about studying, it wouldn't matter where I am. My mind can find distractions on its own without having anything around. A speck on the ceiling is enough to draw my attention away from my studies.

[Vyon]

As for the point about studying, it wouldn't matter where I am. My mind can find distractions on its own without having anything around. A speck on the ceiling is enough to draw my attention away from my studies.

Hear hear! Though for me it's usually a branch waving in the wind just outside my window that distracts me - from either study or writing. The point is, that branch is attached to the house, and needs trimming. So I wander off and do gardening instead.

Method of writing - generally, that involves an hour or so gazing off into space dreaming up the scene, then resort to the computer to type it up. Only, at the moment, I'm living with my mother, who thinks I should be constructively employed if she sees me gazing off into space. If that fails to distract me I have two brown and black striped cats and a Siamese, who all like to walk on the computer.

Editing, I like to print the entire story out, then get it spiral bound, then write all over it, then enter the changes into the computer version. Here, I'm likely to fuss around getting the presentation right on the computer, arguing with it about page numbering on master documents or something ridiculous like that. :irked: Generally, the computer wins, and I finish up without page numbers or every section numbered from 1. Then I spend more time sorting the computer than the writing.

No, I'm not going to go back to writing longhand. :good:

[Ravien Coromana]

I /HATE/ slience! But I also /Hate/ noise! I work best when im writing during class in school. Music works a little bit, but only for a few mins as after that, my brain puts it off as noise, and i cant hear it anymore. I dont understand myself.

[McClance]

Method of writing - generally, that involves an hour or so gazing off into space dreaming up the scene, then resort to the computer to type it up.

Heh, heh. I do a lot of that too when I'm trying to connect two important scenes or trying extend certain scenes to a reasonable length.

I especially do that a lot when I'm writing at school. :)
:noface: ;)

[Bamy]

I generally need t have some background noise to work though i can work in quiet.

[C_ris]

i can neither work in silence. noise makes me concentrate. no noise distracts me. i would artyher work in the bar than in than library (during the day that is).

[Feena_bronze_rider]

I work with techno music and new age music on while my sister is playing the playstation.

[anonew]

I can't work in silence either. I write much better with the radio on to a volume that I can hear it properly or with Avril Lavigne blasting in my ears. Not sure why, but I've written one novel and 77k of the second to Ms Lavigne.
The grumpy old man in me wants to reply 'because your mind would rather do anything rather than be forced to concentrate on Avril Lavigne', but I won't. :evil: For some reason, btw, she's unaccountably popular here in Nepal. You see posters of her everywhere up alongside Bollywood actors, etc. Very odd.
...
Only kidding, she's not that bad. Anyways, one thing that I've found has really impacted upon my writing output, when I do get the chance to sit down, is that I don't smoke anymore. Well, almost not anymore, but certainly not at home. Specifically, it's the lack of rollup ciggies that have made my work slow down so much. When I was younger (and unmarried :evil: ) I used to always sit in front of my trusty old word processor, typing away madly, and every half hour or so I'd pause to make a rolly, light it, smoke it for maybe a minute, then stub it out and carry on. My total intake of cigarette was probably something along the lines of one actual cigarette every three hours or something, which was probably a bonus in itself, but now I've more or less quit, and now I've got a high powered lappy instead of a 1980s relic, my productivity has plummeted.
I also did some very good work whilst listening to John Peel's radio programmes, but alas that won't happen anymore, even if I still lived in the UK.
G

[Yonuh Adisi Fiend Jedi]

I have to be completely alone with zero interuptions. Native American Flute music in the background. Can't have anything with lyrics or I start singing along and can't concentrate and what I want to write. Like I keep telling Silverhawk, I can't multitask worth a darn, I am a Brain Buoy (spelled wrong) at best. Beep...Beep

Anyhow, that's the conditions I need to be able to work and with 9 people in this house with everyone of them up and awake at differant hours, you can see why I haven't been able to write in a long time.

[GoldriderAria]

I'm a chronic multi-tasker. :) I've usually got the TV on, or the radio, and am doing at least 2-3 tasks at once...period. Except when I get truly focused on something (when I have a tendency to hyper-focus) and may spend anywhere from 1-9 HOURS just writing away (still usually with SOME kind of background noise!). Though I am likely to write frantically, get up and feed the cat, write some more, toss in a load of laundry, write some more... I find a good hot shower breaks up writer's block for me like nobody's business.

Music preferences: if I don't want to be distracted, something I *know* really well. Which usually means 50's-60's rock, Swing, New Age, Classical, select Country singers, occasionally something modern rock, and musical soundtracks. ;) Things I can sing along to without having to think too hard.

~Aria

[Staerwyen]

If Im not tired you can forget it. The sleepier I am the better and more I get done on a story, but it does reak havac on my spelling. :noface: