I'm taking a writing class at Writers and Books that my mother-in-law is teaching and my friend Pat is attending. We have dinner before class every week and at the most recent gathering we were discussing writing habits.

It started as an off-hand comment that I made about using my headphones to listen to music and how this hampered my husband's innate ability to be talking, making noise, etc. right when I want to write. Given we share an office this is a pretty regular event.

Anyway, Nancy was surprised to find I could write with music going. She apparently needs more quiet. I envy here the ability to write without some filtering mechanism in that way. I find without music going I am aware of every creak in the floorboards, can track the cats throughout the house, and an desperately conscious of every sigh, laugh, or whatnot Brian (the aforementioned husband) happens to make. Nancy has none of these issues.

Pat apparently does but he writes with a well-known movie playing in the background. I've never tried this method but I suspect I'd end up watching a lot of movies and doing very little writing.

We tangentally also discussed the wheres of writing. While I have a laptop and try to do the writing at coffee shop thing or in a room not shared with Brian, it almost never works. My best writing happens at my desk on my desktop.

Pat apparently writes at his kitchen table and Nancy in her office though she has to use a laptop for reasons up to her to explain.

What I really took out of this conversation is what creatures of habit writers tend to be. We all had our preferences and rituals, and while I imagine we could all write in other surrounds, at least for me it is a more difficult and painful process.

It's also interesting to see exactly how much really goes into creating a productive writing environment and how individualistic that environment can be. I know that I have been writing more since we got full-spectrum lighting (though I full accept that probably has to do with its effects on my very mild depression rather than an inherent element of writing. I know people though that must have certain scents or candles around, can handle different levels of noise and activity, must not have internet access, can only write on paper. The list goes on.

All I can say therefore is that if someone is having trouble writing they might want to consider mixing up the environment to create something that works better for them. It makes a bigger difference than one would think.