You've just plopped yourself down on the living room couch to continue working on your new novel. Suddenly, the cat runs across your lap because it's being chased by the dog who just happens to knock your Kool-Aid all over your 100 page manuscript, ruining the whole thing. What's that you say? You don't have a back up copy on computer? Have to start all over and can't remember a thing you've written because your blood pressure has just hit critical mass?

Time for a change in writing location.

While the above situation may be a little far fetched, the truth is, you really do need to find a place to write where you can work alone and undisturbed. This may not always be possible based on where you are living. If you're sharing a studio apartment or even a dorm with a roomy, you're not going to have a lot of privacy. In these cases you may want to take a ride, or a walk, to the local library. At least there you can work in peace.

If, however, you are fortunate enough to live in a big home, you still should find a room where you can be alone and undisturbed by family and friends. And even at that, there are certain things you should keep in mind when doing your writing that will greatly affect your choice of location.

For example. Let's say you are a songwriter. Unless you write your compositions entirely on manuscript paper, you're going to want to do your writing in the vicinity of some kind of recording equipment and even a piano or some kind of keyboard. If you play the guitar, that's fine too. The reason you want to do this is because unless you can totally hear the music that you are writing in your head, something few people can do, you are going to want to be able to hear what it actually sounds like. By writing near a keyboard or guitar you can walk over to your instrument of choice and plunk out the tune if just to get a feel for how it is coming. You may want to make some changes that you wouldn't have made had you not actually heard what the piece sounded like.

If you're writing a novel, fiction or non fiction, you probably want to write in an area that has reference materials close by, such as a dictionary, encyclopaedia, thesaurus, and even a rhyming dictionary if you are writing poetry.

While this next tip may seem obvious, you want to pick a location to write in that is well lit. Trying to write in the dark is bad for your eyes. If you're doing a lot of writing, eventually this will catch up to you. If you don't have a room with sufficient light then buy a special lamp. You only get one set of eyes.

If you've been writing in a specific place for a while and find that you're starting to get stale writing there, find a new place. Maybe if it's a nice summer day, sit out on your front porch and write in the sunlight. You might get some real inspiration with a change of location.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Writing Tips