6) Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?

These days, I’m most comfortable writing at home at the PC in the guest bedroom-slash-den. When we moved to the townhouse we now rent, I set up my old iMac in the basement with the idea that I would be writing there, mostly in the morning before my day job commute, or on weekends. But whereas the finished basement in our former house was perfect for that sort of thing, the unfinished basement in the townhouse is not. So I write upstairs now. Still mostly in the mornings, and on weekends. Not too often in the evenings; that time sees me either exercising, having dinner, reading, or spending time with family and friends.

I try to stay flexible as to the when and where of writing, as even limited opportunities are better than none at all. Or worse, opportunities wasted–of which, regrettably, I’ve had my share and then some.

I know there’s a school of thought that suggests that writing using pen and paper encourages better work by discouraging needless verbosity and unnecessary scenes. That as may be–I, in attempting to write this way, find it only encourages my hand to hurt. And if I’m thinking about my hand while I’m writing, I’m not ‘in the story,’ a zone my brain has to be in if the story that comes out at the end is going to be satisfactory. Writing at the keyboard–any keyboard, though ideally one connected to a computer–lets me forget about my hands and get on with the storytelling. Which is worth all the additional editing in the world.

(Luckily, carpal tunnel has yet to find me. Hopefully it will stay that way!)