I have written on the sofa, the desk, in my classroom, at meetings, anywhere, really. I'm easily distracted by people watching, and I need a routine to get my brain in gear, so I've chosen a structured office setting for my work space. I have a nice paint color on the wall, but that's no good if I have to shove shit out of the way every time I want to put down my laptop.
I need to go to The Container Store and get some containers, is what I need. You cannot have too many organizing containers, I always say. Unless you're a hoarder. But I'm just tired of not being organized. It's distracting when I'm trying to write and I look over at a stack of shit that needs to be dealt with.
Anyway, what's your work space like?
The problem with my workspace is the computer. I keep getting distracted by the internet-- emails, videos, RSS feeds, and so on. I saw a behind the scenes video of the British show Peep Show where the writers were saying what a tragedy it was that they made the writing box and the "everything" box the same box. Sometimes I wish I had a surfing the internet computer and a computer only for writing, nothing else, but that's definitely extravagant. I guess this is a bit of a "first world problem" ("my computer does too much") but my ability to focus on work is a real problem.
ReplyDeleteMy routine is:
ReplyDeleteCOFFEE SHOP for 2 hours
Lunch
HOME OFFICE for 2 hours
Break
COFFEE SHOP for 2 hours
Gym
Dinner
HOME OFFICE where I proof/edit what I did the previous 3 writing sessions.
Well, for starters I've got the cat box about eight inches from where my feet rest under my desk. That way, I can smell the cat piss and feel pieces of stray litter crunching under me when I sit.
ReplyDeleteThen I've got this ridiculous hutch on top of my desk that does nothing but make it difficult for me to spread out.
Oh, and our apartment isn't quite level, so my rolling chair is always slowly falling away from the desk, forcing me to cling to the edge to keep within arms length of the keyboard.
This may have had something to do with my moving away from comedy and writing more violent, angry stuff.
My workspace is a mess. You're making me feel guilty! Now I need to go clean it up.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow, of course.
Jane.
Haha, @Evan, crooked floor, I can totally relate (everything rolls in our house), maybe that's why I'm angry too often (I thought was state of world).
ReplyDeleteChaotic mess, but I know where everything is, well mostly I do, and lots of eboy posters.
And yes, I work better when things are more organized. I'm working on it.
If you want to write a crazy script , go crazy and give them the fingers, some two and a thumb. Write crazy scripts by being a fun crazy busy guy. Live the crazy life.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to write conservative script. then talk to Andrew Hilton at Script Mechanic. Just got this logline, very formulaic, as if written in someone's neat office in NYC: (see is you are a conservative guy with a conservative desk, you will write coservative scripts)
Here is the logline for Bullet Run:
"The head of an elite private protection team and his former CIA agent wife infiltrate the closed borders of Iran to abduct a man who killed their daughter. The extraction goes awry and they force to rely on their world-class driving skills and a fleet of high-performance street cars to travel 200 miles through a hail of bullets to keep alive the man they really want dead." [Deadline]
Reads okay and will make a straight to DVD movie. But tells you how conservative his business is and his work space is.
Dennis
The lesson from this ... -- is that it doesn't matter if you are writing in a nice room or a messy room. At the end of the day. We are all poor. 90% of unknown screenwriters are poor. Script Mechanic Andrew Hilton, just told me that he is poor. I like his honesty. To make it in this town , you need two imcome with an average of $200,000.00. Thank God I deal with the truth and I don't use Forums to justify my false hopes and dreams by being a liar. Forums are used to hide from reality.
ReplyDeleteSounds like I'm not the only one who wants to escape from the chaos.
ReplyDeleteDennis, you may be a crazy person.