My kids will tell you I tell them to focus upon the world we live in and not the world we want to live in.
It is not because I am trying to splash cold water on their dreams but because there is a shifting balance between working with what you have and trying to obtain what you haven’t got…yet.
Ask me where the write place for my writing is and I’ll show you pictures like you see here in this post and all sorts of other spots that I think would be great for writing.
Some of them will be exotic and different.
They’ll be places where I expect to have some experiences that will make for great stories and some will be quite mundane.
The funny thing about exotic is how subjective that is.
I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and am very familiar with the LA car culture.
When I visit other cities and the locals tell me they have bad traffic I usually smile because their bad is usually what I call good.
If you tell me we are 25 or 30 miles away from where we have to be I don’t think twice about it because LA is spread out and I have spent years knowing that getting from A to B meant sitting in the car for a while.
But I have also had the privilege to visit other cities and live other places.
When friends or family from New York tell me they have never owned a car because they don’t need one I shake my head because it is just foreign to me.
I love having a car and while it’s nice to not always have to rely upon it the idea of not having the option to hop in and go somewhere bothers me a bit.
Can’t say I wouldn’t adjust but I don’t know that I would want to.
Where Is Your ‘Write’ Place For Writing?
I am not a writer because I choose to be but because stories and storytelling are the fabric of my being.
Those of you know me can attest to this.
I always have a story or two to tell or share and I always wonder about the stories of the places, people and things around me.
Sometimes my kids catch me staring at something and ask what I am looking at and I tell them about how I wonder how something was built and how many parts/pieces were used to make it.
I tell them I wonder about what was crafted by hand and what was made by machine.
Sometimes I talk to them about urban planning and ask them if they have ever thought about how cities are made and who came up with the ideas to create XYZ.
Interspersed with all this I often think about what would make an ideal spot for writing for me and then I laugh.
Laugh because I just told the kids to focus on the world we live in and not the one we want to live in. Who knew that dear old dad is the biggest dreamer of them all.
Ask me why I think about whether I want or need to become a billionaire and one of the central reasons is because I want to find out what it would be like to write in a dozen different settings.
Would a beach bungalow be better for writing than a boat or private plane?
What would my writing be like in Nepal, India or on the Great Wall of China?
Would it be different if I owned a castle in Scotland or a cottage in the English countryside?
You Should Be Able To Write Anywhere
I remember in Journalism 101 being instructed to learn how to write anywhere and how I took that to heart.
I can, I do and have done it.
Planes, trains and automobiles.
Coffee shops, cubicles, diners, hotel rooms and pool side.
I have written personal and or professional pieces everywhere.
Sometimes I have had to focus extra hard to ignore the outside world.
There have been moments on deadline where the noise reduction headphones and the right writing music has been extra important because I needed to finish a project, but not always.
That is because that same professor made a point to encourage us to learn how to focus on getting it done even when we weren’t in the right space or place for writing.
Remember how I said I tell my children to focus on the world we live in and not the one we wish we lived in?
Well I also teach them to figure out how to live their dreams and not dream their lives.
Dear old dad can do no less, so figure one of these days you’ll see another post about the write place for writing and you’ll know I follow through on the big dreams too.
I’d like to write in a Scottish castle or in the English countryside but without a laptop it’d take me forever!
I usually write in the living room because that’s where my PC is. Most of the time I have family around me so it’s a case of concentrate when you can and the rest of the time forget it.
I’m familiar with this Tim. I use headphones and music to escape …
I often write with headphones on as well.
I’ve tried that but my family still talk to me not realising I can’t actually hear them!
The challenges of writing with young kids and family obligations, I know this well. Now that my kids are a bit older it has gotten easier.
I look forward to that time Josh! Although I don’t want to rush through life either :-).
Hey there Joshua,
Great thoughts, mate, and love the “focus on the world around you versus the world you want it to be” message. Let’s face it, so many of our issues come from worrying about tomorrow versus resolving things today. Sure, we can want a better planet for all – but that starts by taking action today, not hoping it will be fixed by tomorrow.
The writing space is an interesting one. I tend to find when an idea comes to mind, I’ll write something about it down, to catch the moment. If I’m near my blog, all the better as I can go straight into draft (and perhaps publish) mode. So, from that angle, the surroundings matter less than the content.
That being said, I do find I write more/better (delete where applicable) when in solitude. Outside on the deck in the summer with the birds singing, or sitting next to a real fire in the main room while winter passes by outside.
I’m wondering if the same would be the case if I had the same locations, but noise around me. Probably not – but then the noise opens up a different story anyway, so all good.
Thanks for making me think this morning!
Hi Danny,
I figure most of the time it is just as easy to work towards the life we want as it is to talk about it so I figure if I can combine the two I am saving time.
I go back and forth about how much quiet I need to write. Solitude can be nice, I sure like the sound of writing on the deck or by the fire.
When I think about it, I probably get more done on my own, but not always.
Sometimes I like to ‘compromise’ by using https://coffitivity.com/ or one of those apps that provide rain in the background.
Interesting question and one I have been asking myself during the years. I haven’t found my perfect place yet, and I’m not sure if I have one. I have written in Tuscany, at a beach in Thailand and in Mexico. But the results were no different than when I was writing in a tiny cold hotel room in Norway. It seems that what I’m most familiar with makes me more productive, but where I write the best quality texts, that’s something I don’t know.
I haven’t figured out either whether it is location, my frame of mind or dumb luck that accounts for my best writing. I just know that I want to have more experiences to explore this because something tells me there are benefits either way.
Tuscany and Thailand sound like they would be fun places to write.
Both were great places to write, other than the fact that I don’t work that well when it’s hot. I’m used to the weather in Norway and when it’s different (hot) I need time to adjust.
Funny thing, I find it easy to write when it is hot and harder when it is cold.