I Will Write Words Everywhere by Lorrie Orr

 

Our May blog prompt is: Time and Place

Where do you write? Do you have a specific place and time? How often do you write? Are you easily distracted or do you need things around you to bounce your eyes off to inspire you? (suggested by Joy Bailey)

I Will Write Words Everywhere

(With apologies to Doctor Suess)

I will write words in my head

When I walk and in my bed

I will write words with my brain

In the sunshine and the rain.

I will write with pen and ink

But not when at the kitchen sink.

I will not write when I drive

For that’s a way to be un-alive.

 

If I want my words to be read

I will sit and think in my head

In a chair with my glasses on

Maybe in the early dawn.

And type and type with keys a-clacking

All the while my brain a-wracking.

 

I will write words here or there

I will write them on my chair

I will write them up or down

In my jeans or a dressing gown.

By a window is always best

To gaze outdoors for my eyes to rest.

On the keyboard my fingers fly

Like birds soaring in the sky.

A candle helps to set the mood

Along with flowers and perhaps some food.

 

I will write words here and there

I will write words everywhere

I like to write, now this is true

But where, oh where, do you?

Lorrie Orr writes from Vancouver Island where there is much scope for the imagination, as Anne Shirley once said. She's composed great works of literature in her head, but alas, the words have not made it to print. However, she has just published her first book, a memoir, soon to be released.

Read more of her breathless prose here:

(9) Lorrie Orr | Substack

 

My E-book Dilemma - T. L. Wiens

I see the offers everyday--free e-book today only! Do I like free things? Yes, but this bothers me.

When I go shopping for jewelry, art or craft items, I can't remember a time when someone just gave it to me. In fact, most of the time, these things are quite expensive. How many of these items take years to produce?

I realize for some, writing is a ministry but for many others, this is how they pay the bills. I've heard it said many times when people are shopping at craft fairs--the prices are accepted because they appreciate the time it took to produce the final product. We need to stop devaluing our time and sell our books. If not for yourselves, then for your fellow writers who need to have the income.

Where I Write -- Kimberley Payne

Some days I have trouble sitting down to write because I can’t decide where the best place would be to stimulate my creative juices. I am blessed with several options, including my leather couch in the living room, my armchair in the sunroom, or my blue oversized chair in the office. In this summer season, my options can also include writing outdoors on the pool deck, or in a Muskoka chair overlooking the ravine, or on the low back chair on my front porch.

When the question was posed on The Word Guild discussion forum, I discovered that just as all writers are different, their writing places are as unique.

N.J. Lindquist likes to sit on her back deck, inside a tent with the netting closed. Her dog sits on the loveseat beside her. Stephanie Tombari taps away on her laptop late in the evening sitting on her bed with her husband out cold beside her. Patricia Paddey loves the freedom of her laptop. “It lets me write anywhere. And I do.”

Janice Dick uses a little white Mac laptop at her desk in the balcony overlooking her living room. Andi Harris is content to sit on her living room futon (curved out just so from her constant use), laptop in front, side table with fruit juice or water, and a couple of clip boards.

Belinda Burston sits “in a dappled place beside a sturdy clump of silver birch--so lovely that I had to capture it with the eye of my camera. A canopy of leaf laden branches, danced above my head, while a breeze passed through them with a sigh. The electronic drone of an air conditioner added to the symphony of tweets, twitters, chirrups and soft coo-ing. Over my arms, warmed by the sun, the cool, silken veil of breeze flowed. I was ready to listen in the cool of this morning.”

Carolyn Wilker writes most often in her home office using pen or pencil and paper, which she takes with her whenever she goes away from home. Linda Hall writes “with pen and paper –actually medium point gel pens, the ultra-fine Sharpies are good, on back sides of paper (unlined), and I like to write with various colored sharpies - like orange or red. I write in half shorthand (which I used way back in the dark ages when they taught shorthand to journalism students). And I usually work in Starbucks.” Heather Kendall also writes “the old-fashioned way with pen and paper”. She needs to have a rough outline down on paper before she dares put it in the computer.

Each writer and her writing space is unique. Today, I plan to sit in my tent-trailer and open all the windows to let in the air without the bugs. It’ll provide the shade I need so I’m not roasting in the sun. It also offers a clear view of the blue sky with a smattering of puffy clouds in the distance. Now that I’ve picked my place to write, I actually need to do so. What to write, what to write?

Kimberley Payne
www.kimberleypayne.com