The Writer's Life in Winter

Hi all,

Despite having the heat on and the small heater in my bedroom on HIGH, it was cold this morning!  I grabbed my old, gray cashmere robe with the holes in it (moths?), put on thick socks and my black yoga pants (I don't DO yoga), and slipped into my fake black Uggs before coming downstairs.  This is my favorite winter writing outfit.  It was even colder downstairs in the kitchen!  Wooeeee!

Note to self:  buy another space heater for the kitchen.

I let the Puglet out from the kitchen door and he turned back at me like I'd told him to walk the plank off a ship into freezing waters!  "Be a man, Ozzy.  Get out there and do your business!" I told him and had to shut the kitchen door or he would have run back inside.  Eventually, he sniffed around and did his business on my nearly frozen hydrangea bushes.  Nice.  I'll have to remember to wear gardening gloves next Spring.  I could hear him say, "There, happy now?"  He did look a little smug when he ran inside.

Winter is the perfect time of year to write if you tend to hibernate like me in the winter months.  There is no gardening to be done in my yard although I could put those bulbs in the ground that have been sitting in my gardening shed for a year already.  Nah.  Too cold already!  My grapevine doesn't get pruned until March, so I live indoors now.

I either write downstairs on the dining room table with the view of my garden or upstairs in my bedroom.  I can choose between my comfy, warm bed or the huge banker's desk that sits against the wall if I go upstairs.  Nice to have choices :)  All my writing books are in a bookcase in my bedroom, as well.  My dictionaries, Thesauraus, books on plot, character development, POV, the latest Writer's Digest, and then some. I make a pot of tea or coffee and I'm set for the day.

To be a writer means playing alone in your head for hours upon hours a day.  It's nuts really, so you may as well be comfortable, warm and happy going nuts.

I usually begin writing and editing downstairs and as the day progresses, I move upstairs because the TV is close to the dining room and I can easily switch it on out of habit.  Too many distractions with the History channel, the Food Network, Bravo TV, NatGeo, SyFy shows and I am addicted to the Housewives shows!  All of them.  I know, I know, don't ask!

Do you have a favorite place or time to write?  What's your favorite writing outfit?  Have a nice day :)

Peace and love,
Ellie