Darned if best intentions, scheduled schedules, and even well thought out plans, don’t just go awry on a whim.
It’s Tuesday and here I am thinking about effective time use and scheduling my week. I did mention it is Tuesday didn’t I? And most of the world is already almost half way through their week, you know Wednesday being hump day and all.
Judith, way down under New Zealand way and I spend a fair bit of time, either during our weekly Skype visit, or by email, or Messenger talking about scheduling our days to allow for all we want to do: writing, blogging, reading, socializing, chores and cleaning (rubber gloving as she calls it). She even has a neat Excel Sheet to schedule our activities and one to track our writing success on a daily basis.
Now Joss, our accomplished Canadian writer, living in Cuenca Ecuador also joins this little group and we chat and discuss and at times solve all the world’s problems, unbeknownst to the world of course.
Aside from Beta reading for Joss, talking about writing and schedules we also talk about writers and their routines and schedules, as we did last week. I read a lot about successful people, not so much as to try their style, as much as hoping that just the act of reading about it will make it stick to me somehow. Alas, I have come to the conclusion that if one want’s to be successful, one must work for it. There is no sticking by association.
Part of last week’s discussion was about writers who go outside their homes to write. (Joss writes this way).
Jeffery Archer:
Describe the room where you usually write
I have a home in Majorca that has been built into a cliff. The study is separate from the house, and I love its calmness. It has 20 foot-long windows and overlooks the sea. There is just a desk with pens, pencils, a rubber, an hourglass, paper, pictures of my family, and me. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-with-jeffrey-archer-novelist-7545587.html)
Oh also Stephen King’s Top 20 rules for Writers (article here) from a Barnes and Noble Blog is just to good to pass up.
Oh yeah, writing outside your home. Mr. King has written anywhere and everywhere, but once when his children were young he rented an apartment across town for six months.
There are many writers who write outside their home but now I have come across this article about Detroit Nonprofit program for providing homes for writers called
A Room of Their Own: How Write A House Is Putting Writers in Vacant Homes
from Electricliterature.com, and my mind if off in a few more directions.
Oh yeah, and about writing about writing – it occurs to me that that may be my expertise. You know, rather than actually writing something. Time will tell.
bridgesburning 
An interesting post, Chris. I usually write when it’s quiet and no one is around, I like writing very early, usually from about two or three in the morning.
Thank you for the follow, I hope you enjoy my offerings, ☺☺
I already do enjoy you!
An interesting post, Chris. Thanks for stopping by my blog and following. 🙂 — Suzanne
This is very interesting. I don’t have a specific place to write at all. I write any place, any where and any time that the urge hits me.
That is the best way to be Robbie..then you are not limited
I like small spaces to write in. And quiet of people but loud of nature places to write in.
Do you still have your wee house to write in…didn’t David build you like a shed a year or two ago?
🙂 We bought a small log cabin. We built a deck to it. I do still have it. I love it. I usually open the door and sit in the doorway. 🙂
I would like a home built into a cliff I need Majorca……
ooooo yup I do too
Great post Chris. And yes it’s 9 am here in NZ wednesday and my day is yet to start.
I have a small room in which to read and write in. From the window I have a forest to stare into. Unfortunately, given the choice I would prefer a more urban view. I lived in Ecuador for twenty-five years and have spent time in Tuscany but, sad to say, their beautiful landscapes did nothing for my writing.
I find city life more conducive for writing in.
In my room in Bonn I am inspired and oft comforted by the books which overfill their shelves. Around 7 AM, when my head is at its clearest I will write for an hour, maybe two, transcribing the jumble of hand written notes from the previous day into the desktop.
As soon as I become restless I breakast and afterwards walk to a nearby cafe to drink my daily espresso. There I read the local newspaper or chat with the locals which often gives me some tit-bit for an article or I may, if the mood is right, scribble notes on one of two books I am struggling with. Then, unless sidetracked, it’s back to my cell to continue.
Your routine sounds so wonderfully creative and in a way romantic.
Yes, it’s the cobblestones of a city that give me inspiration and not nature’s beauty. A shame really
I may have told you before but my place of greatest inspiration was on a cobblestone street, in a bookstore in Canterbury. Actually I loved the whole place and would never have left – if I hadn’t been a responsible adult with children, plans and a home in Canada and and and….but I have never had that feeling of inspiration and belonging and longing anywhere else
I have lived 50 years of my life out of England, 25 in Sth America and 25 in Germany. I am happy feeling like a foreigner everywhere. I suppose I’m more a European now but at heart I’m still an English man (it’s hard to disguise this) enjoying life everywhere and anywhere. Some days inspirational, some not so – like today. Time to write to friends and forget attempting to be creative.
Jeffery Archer’s set up sounds idyllic — but the lovely thing about writing is that you can find such delightful places to do it if you set your mind to it, even local parks and cafes and botannical gardens.
That is so true Luna and what works for one might not for another.
I could be wrong, but it sound like you are American. Am I missing something?
I love you Chris! And I love knowing, writing away from my own home, that I am in such good company. May some of their success rub off!
hahaha yes…did you read the article of Rooms for Writers? The program actually started out renovating old homes and giving them free to writers.
I just read it. It’s a good idea, renting the house out, hopefully very affordably, till the writer moves on, or not! Who knows? They may be housing the next JK!