Conditions

You've just reminded me I used to play the theme music at the end of Dead Poets Society while I was doing my homework all those millions of years ago. I recorded it off the telly and played it in my Walkman! Music without lyrics is far less distracting and drowns out any ambient noise. Why do I forget these things?! Thanks.

I must be the odd one out here. I can write anywhere, anytime, and with music. In fact I purposely have music playing in the background. I cannot work in silence, I hate silence.

I always leave my house to write. I cannot work at home because there are currently too many distractions, (even though I am usually alone at home, due to my unusual working hours, plus it's too quiet) I have too much access and freedom at home. I always find something else to do, or waste time on, and I never start writing.

My current favorite writing spot is a cafe about a fifteen minute drive from my house. I always drive there, order my favorite cup of coffee, (which coincidentally is the best cup of coffee I've had in my country so far) sit quietly at a table near an electricity plug and open my laptop, plug my headphones in and start working. I also have another habit, which I know is bad and should at some point stop it, but currently it seems I cannot, and that is smoking. I always have a cigarette in my mouth.

Music, there must always be music playing in my ears. I will admit that once I reached the editing part of the process, listening to music started becoming an issue, as I started focusing more on the lyrics than the editing. I have however found a solution to my problem, and that is music without lyrics. (I call it EPIC music) As soon as I discovered such songs, I never went back to listening songs with lyrics when working. This new found type of music inspires me like no other.

I have worked without music, but there is always noise in the background. I have done a lot of writing while being at the office at work. I work at a call center so you can imagine the noise going on, but despite this, I always manage to zone out and write. Noise is a must for me, preferably music.

When I think about it now, I've written in some idylic places. I started out in my little office in my home in Hertfordshire. It was beige so I felt obliged to look at the screen. But if I opened my window I could hear the teenager across the road writing music. He's now The Wanted's songwriter!

Then there was my office in Tenerife. It was a round tower with five windows showing the 360 degree view and a door onto a roof terrace. The view in northern Tenerife was of the mountains and the sea. It was beautiful. In the summers, because the schools finished at 2pm, we used to take the kids to the beach in the afternoons. I hardly ever seemed to take the same notepad twice, I was always too tired to write up my notes straight away so I quite often forgot that I had written that scene and spent most of that summer just going around in circles. DON'T WRITE ON THE BEACH!

I now have a tiny bedroom/office. It's this horrible raspberry milkshake pink and I'm sure I painted the top half brilliant white, but just six months later, it aint so brilliant. My desk cuts across the foot of my bed so I have to trap my feet underneath when I go to sleep. Some have suggested removing the desk; I'd rather remove the bed base and put the mattress on the floor! And there is so much stuff in here, it's almost impossible to clean. This room is everyone's dumping ground so I can find anything from odd socks to old photos suddenly placed here (but more often than not it's kids toys because they've come to talk to me and left everything they came in with.) But this is my sanctuary and I love it as much as the far more glamorous offices it replaced.

I had forgotten I used to write to music because I have been editing FOREVER! I can't edit with music playing at all.