Outdoors—M.G. Sondraal
Creativity is not anchored to a particular place for me. Having adapted over years to snatching moments out of my day to scrawl a few lines or scribble out a story arc, I can write anywhere. I prefer to write where I am comfortable and well-prepared for the task, and with coffee to fortify my resolve.
Where I write is dependent on the job at hand, and the weather. My most favourite place is seated comfortably with my laptop on my deck in the early morning, banging away at the keys to the accompaniment of bird song, amid the fragrance of flowers and fresh coffee in equal measure. It simply doesn’t get better than that.
Driven indoors due to inclement, or seasonal, weather, I’m flexible. I have an office desk complete with sticky notes, power bar, and vision board, and surrounded by not-yet-dead houseplants, that is a near-perfect indoor substitute. Another advantage is no cats are allowed in the room, preventing foliage ingestion and subsequent vomiting. This also eliminates the distractions of cats walking across keyboards, clawing up my legs to climb onto my lap and head-butting me repeatedly for attention.
If editing or writing with pen and paper for slower development of creative ideas, I move about--to the island in the kitchen, a chair before the fire, a couch in the family room. Anywhere will do, and cats are welcome to drape themselves over me and witness my efforts.
Although when reading or writing, I can tune out noise and be entirely in a fantasy world, I do not typically seek out a noisy environment. I can, and will, write in coffee shops, but only by invitation of very good friends who thrive in that experience and seek my company. I don’t write to a playlist running in the background either. Visual chaos with the detritus of my real life neglected for my fictional world is unacknowledged, but the cacophony of music, conversations, clinking cutlery and, heaven help me, the kid next door practicing drumming cannot be ignored and is as disruptive as my affectionate feline companions.
Longing for spring and writing outdoors,
M G Sondraal