My good friend, Lisa, author of the blog ‘That’s Why’ recently wrote this blog post. Lisa shared intimate details with us regarding her family, her writing process, how she’s evolved as a writer. And she gave us an inside look, through out time, where she does her writing, complete with photos. At the end of the post she asked her readers to show her where we write.
And I am more than happy to oblige.
I believe I started writing when I was around nine years old. That’s when I received my very first diary, and thus began my love for the written word. I don’t have any photos of that time in my life, and I have since lost all of those journals.
I really took to writing, while I attended a private boarding high school. From the ages 13-16, I was 3,000 miles away from home and I missed my brother, Abercrombie, terribly. I hand wrote at least three letters per week – and I also kept a journal which I updated every night before going to bed. Again, I don’t have many photos of that time in my life either, but I do still have all of those journals.
Then there was that time in my life I spent hitchhiking across the country, following the Grateful Dead for one year. Very sadly, I don’t have many photos of that time in my life either, but I do have all of those wonderfully detailed journals. I kept track of every show, every set list, every place I stayed, and all of people I encountered. Maybe one of these days I should go through them?
From the ages 18-27, my life was a complete whirlwind of craziness that I’d rather not discuss, here, today. But, I never stopped writing. In fact, I probably wrote more than ever. I am currently in the process of going through those very journals in the hopes of transforming them into something substantial.
When I turned 27, I finally got my life together. I made incredible changes and beat all kinds of odds, when I should have been nothing more than a statistic. And that’s when I moved into my very favorite condo. The first thing I had to do was set up was a working space where I could really write. I spent countless hours at this desk, organizing old journals, and writing until my fingertips bled.
And then, in 2006, one of my closest friends, Leslie, who’s known me since I was all of thirteen years old, and knew all about my love for writing, told me about the world of blogging. I immediately signed up and I’ve never looked back.
I became addicted to blogging, instantly. I started meeting incredibly funny people, and totally-super-talented writers.
Here I am in my favorite condo, sitting on my favorite sofa, blogging, with my very first Apple Computer.
Since then…
I’ve written while on vacation in the Dominican Republic.
And while on vacation in Mexico.
And…
I’ve written in hotel rooms.
I’ve written while sitting on the floors of Hospital Waiting Rooms.
And….
I’ve even written while trapped in the bathroom for hours, suffering from a Crohn’s Attack.
My love for writing, and my computer, has become so strong over the years.
Once, I even took my ‘Apple’ out on ‘The Best Date I’ve Ever Had’.
But sometimes in life – there are things you can’t control.
And at the age of 33, I moved back home with my parents, for the first time, since I was 13.
These days, this is where I spend most of my time, writing and blogging.
And, when I am not at home, you can usually find me at my local Country Club, often referred to as ‘KHCC’ – writing in my other ‘office’.
And there you have it.
So tell me boys and girls:
- How long have you been writing?
- How long have you been blogging?
- And, will you show me where YOU write?
you are so funny, i love that you take your MAC everywhere and your camera too. now on to the post. i write where i won’t be disturbed…in my head. there’s a ton of crap in there that really should be on paper or performed, but i haven’t made the time to do so. sometimes the writing comes faster than i can process it. let’s see, i started writing letters to my friends in high school, so i was 4 at the time, i mean er um, 14-15. i’m sure i kept some kind of a journal/diary, but a spotty one when i was younger, but after a certain someone got a hold of it and read it, i stopped for a while until i could enroll in the witness protection program. what a violation of privacy.
how long – 2006-2007 i think. could have been before then though, but i would always delete the blogs. TOL is probably the first blog i’ve kept and not deleted.
where: i write at work, can’t show you that station yet..i’m on vaka for the next week or so and i write at my computer desk where i’m at now, i’ll take a pic in a second and tweet it just for you. i keep paper in the car, i write there. i write on my itouch. i used to write at the gym on the treadmill when i was jogging – sometimes the elliptical too. i don’t do that anymore. and of course i write in the bed. keep my laptop underneath my bed so when i get in the mood, i can just pull it out and go to work. that didn’t sound right.
I write in my recliner…. gotta get comfortable! And when I’m camping, I take my portable recliner! I do not write in the bathroom, although at times I’ve thought that a Homer Simpson recliner would come in handy for multi-tasking like that.
I still love that date you went on with your Mac. It cracks me up just thinking about it. I have a study where I write (which is awesome) but I also take a notebook and pen with me everywhere I go so I can jot things down. I would love to have an iPad that I could carry around with me. That would be so cool!
LOL, I can’t believe you posted that picture of you in the bathroom!! I usually write in my living room, sitting on the couch, feet up on the ottoman, laptop on my lap. We bought new couches less than 2 years ago, and my spot is already “sunk in”!
Ha! That first pic looks like every office I’ve ever worked in – I had stacks of files everywhere, but they were organized!
I think my first and best creative writing was when I wrote letters of defiance to my then single mother (who worked long hours), or letters complaining about some issues concerning our domestic state of affairs, but mostly about my sister who usually drove me batshit crazy in her absence. Sadly, I never saved those scribblings. Otherwise, most of my writing was work related in a non-creative sense.
As for blogging, it’s been just over one year for me, still striving to write things read worthy, and I write at our breakfast table which also doubles as my ‘desk’ for the time being. Our office is in our house so it pretty much (still) resembles that first pic.
love the bookcase too.
v
I write at my desk, on the couch, with my notebook (paper & pen) in the bed, outside, on vacation, often late in the evening (that’s where the weird things come from). Writing is something I’ve come upon recently, and I don’t know that one really can call it “writing”. I started writing poetry when I was in high school, and continued off and on over the years. While I was working there wasn’t a lot of time, and I didn’t really think a lot about it. A couple years ago I thought maybe I’d like to blog. I’d have a forum, so to speak, to put some of my thoughts out there. The blog has undergone a few changes since I started in 9/2009, and I have discovered creative writing, short stories, etc. in addition to getting back into poetry. Sometimes it is easier to make up stuff, i.e. fiction, than to write about everyday life – like you do so well. Throw in a little, and I do mean little, freelance writing for the small bucks, and there you have what I call “writing”. In my mind I aspire to much more, but like all things, one step at a time.
When I was 11 my aunt gave me a blank journal for Christmas. It was a large one; 8 1/2 by 11 with a pebbled black cover and my initials inside the front cover that she’d placed there in bold black rub-on transfer. I’ve been journalling ever since, and I wish I still had both that journal and a prompt-filled journal called ‘The Judy Blume Diary’ that I filled cover to cover, because I’m quite certain they are filled with hilarious and cringeworthy entries.
I’ve written in four different countries, on airplanes, on trains, in museums, on park benches, brooding by lakes, on bluffs overlooking summer camp waterfronts, and at my kitchen table in wee hours when all my petty worries organized and presented a unified current of sleep-chasing anxiety. These days I write at my kitchen table, despite a clear and perfectly serviceable desk in my bedroom, mostly because the desk does not afford a pool of sun for the cat to sleep in.
In 2003 I undertook a major challenge; a 150 mile bike ride, and wrote ‘dispatches’ about my training and preparation. I emailed them to interested friends because other than some vague awareness of Salon. com, I didn’t know about blogging. I started blogging the year we moved from our suburban home outside of Philadelphia to very rural North Central PA, mostly to cope with the four months of separation required by the move, since my husband (UnfinishedRambler) had to be up here in July and my then-job obligated me to stay within striking distance of Delaware until October. Once I got here I blogged to cope with the fact that I was a ‘flatlander’ who felt like I’d moved into a Larry the Cable Guy anecdote.
And now I’m going to export this to my own blog, and stop talking, because its evolving into a post! 🙂
OMG. You posted a picture on the can! I can’t believe it. Well, I’ve been reading you long enough to believe it. I am going to totally take you up on this offer and do a post to answer these questions, sans toilet-typing shot.
Valerie,
YOU crack ME up.
And, I do wish you would blog more often.
Or at least post more photos.
And thank you for tweeting me a photo of your writing area!
xoxoox
HA!
I’ve been writing since about the third grade when the teacher gave all of us a blue hard bound journal to write in. I’ve filled 20 of those books and then another 40 notebooks until I discovered blogging and started writing online. I usually write at my desk now but I love nothing more than writing in my bed with a pen and paper. Sadly I don’t do that much anymore but those are the words that are raw and unedited and will probably never be shared online.
I wish I had a study like yours, Selma!
And I never leave the house without pen & paper
– just in case I get an idea.
I have NO SHAME. Clearly.
🙂
I miss that condo, every second, of every day.
I’m a night time writer too.
There are far too many distractions in the day to get any REAL writing done.
I can’t write a poem to save my life!
I STILL love all things Judy Blume!
Can’t wait to read YOUR blog post about this!
YAY! I can’t wait to see yours!
🙂
Great photos! That toilet one really cracks me up. Pun somewhat intended. I would love to read some excerpts from the Grateful Dead journals. I was a Deadhead for a while. Then I quit taking acid and started listening to the Ramones. I write at a desk underneath my loft bed. I have an ongoing fear that the bed will collapse and fall on top of me. Oh and I’ve been writing since 1986 and I started blogging on MySpace (hi Tom!) in 2008.
My writing history is nowhere near as interesting as yours, and I could show you where I write… but a photo of my recliner would probably be pretty boring 🙂
I can only write quick notes with a pen & paper anymore.
I’m spoiled with my Mac!
Maybe I will post some excerpts?
Show it!! Show it!
I really enjoyed this post, Maleah. I started writing in high school when I had a great composition teacher. My writing career was detoured into technical stuff by an engineering career where I wrote thousands of pages of proposals and reports with more equations than metaphors. The exception was the hundreds of letters I wrote to my wife, illustrated with Peanuts characters. About fifteen years ago, I earned a certificate in Creative Writing and began to write fiction. Two year plus a little ago, I started blogging and you know where that’s gone.
Where do I write? In my car. At a picnic table in the park. At my desk in my office. In my recliner, where I am now. Show you? Well, that may just make a good post.
Oh yes! Pease SHOW me, Bud!!
🙂
These days, I begin most of my writing in the shower. (No, I will NOT show pictures. :D) It really helps to have The Droodle in there to write notes to myself. http://thedroodle.com/ All of my posts are written on my PC, which is in our computer room/hockey cave–with the exception of anything that I do on the laptop when we are on the road. I MAY have to put up some pics of the hockey cave one of these days–maybe after the playoffs. 😉
Yes! Please do that!
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Hahaha – I just love your photos.As always you crack me up. My reply to this post is in my blog.
http://awakeanddreaming.org/?p=21744
I love all your pictures!! I, too, have been writing since a young age (I think third grade) when I got my first diary and I’ve journeled my life ever since then. I still have all of them. I wrote short stories throughout high school and college and started blogging a little over two years ago and I LOVE it!!!
Yahooo!! Thanks, Roshan!
Sweet! That’s awesome, Brooke!
Magnificent! I love this post. Isn’t it true – we find or make places to write, no matter what.
Thanks for doing this and for the link.
xoxoxoxo
You’re welcome, Lisa.
And thank YOU for giving me the idea!
I love every location, every single picture, with a special shoutout to the toilet shot. ^_^ But if I am forced to choose a fav with a gun to my head I would have to say the iDONTCARE shot is PERFECT.
iLUVU
Let’s see. I started writing when I was 7. My cousin and I would write letters to each other. They are all long gone but I remember how I loved to write them and read her responses. I always had diaries which I still have. Then when I was 18 I went on my first long trip with some girl scouts and I journaled the entire trip which started my habit of journaling every vacation I took. I love rereading about those trips. I’m often thinking “I forgot I did that!”
I write anywhere. Mostly on my sofa and laptop. I still journal usually on my screened in porch. I’ve been blogging for four and 1/2 years.
I would show you where I blog but then I would have to sumo wrestle you.
You crack me up!! I’m insanely jealous over your mac. We have a desktop imac but I want a laptop one.
Let’s see. I started writing when I was 7. My cousin and I would write letters to each other. They are all long gone but I remember how I loved to write them and read her responses. I always had diaries which I still have. Then when I was 18 I went on my first long trip with some girl scouts and I journaled the entire trip which started my habit of journaling every vacation I took. I love rereading about those trips. I’m often thinking “I forgot I did that!”
I write anywhere. Mostly on my sofa and laptop. I still journal usually on my screened in porch. I’ve been blogging for four and 1/2 years.
I would show you where I blog but then I would have to sumo wrestle you.
You crack me up!! I’m insanely jealous over your mac. We have a desktop imac but I want a laptop one.
I write while I’m at work.
shhhhhhhhh.
HA! Thank you. I love my screensaver too!
Oh come on! Show me & you can sumo wrestle me @ the conference!
You sure do! And you do it so well!
Okay, first I have to say….I LOVE your bedroom, Meleah! What a cozy room you have. Love the way you have it decorated.
And I absolutely HOWLED at you on the toilet blogging! Us Libras show it ALL, don’t we?
I started writing when I was very young. I started writing poetry, then moved into short stories, and then play scripts.
But, blogging for me has been the best way of expressing myself through writing. I’ve learned more about writing through blogging than any other media form. It’s my space to take chances, experiment, and discover my own style. Plus, I’ve met some of the nicest people through blogging; people who have actually become friends.
I usually write on my desktop computer at home. I got a laptop about a year ago, but I really only use it for emails, responding to comments, and google searches. For some reason, I find it hard to write on a laptop away from home. However, I think if I only had a laptop I would probably be get use to it. I also have to write in complete silence.
Weird, hu?
Happpy Monday, girl!
X
Ronnie!!
“I’ve learned more about writing through blogging than any other media
form.”
Me too!
And I’m glad you liked this post!
xoxo
Ronnie!!
“I’ve learned more about writing through blogging than any other media
form.”
Me too!
And I’m glad you liked this post!
xoxo
Ronnie!!
“I’ve learned more about writing through blogging than any other media
form.”
Me too!
And I’m glad you liked this post!
xoxo
Would you believe I started writing 3 years ago, when I started blogging! I really can’t think why, but I have never kept a diary – ever! I think it would have been too boring when I was a young girl, and as I got older, I preferred to play my guitar, or draw into the early hours. I imagine, if I stopped blogging, I would probably stop writing, or maybe I would tackle the book I started. Who knows?
Where do I write? At my Mac, of course 😉
Oh BTW. I think it was a good idea to make the toilet photo sepia. I think a full blown colour photo may have been a bit, em….. ‘real’ hahahaha!
I love all of these pictures of you with your Apple anywhere, and the image of you as a constant writer, which is what I think writing is for me: It’s a constant. I never stop. I do it everywhere. Everything I see, every conversation I have somehow gets translated into the written word, even if I don’t put it down on paper. I think like a writer, and I can’t think any other way.
Oh, Babs. You totally need to tackle the book you started.
I will too- if you will.
Let’s make a pact?