The Place With the Words: The Unfocused Writer's Guide, #3

By David Macpherson

Is there the best place to write?

 

Yes. And no. 

 

The best place to write is the place you feel most comfortable to write. That can be in your house, in a hotel room, at a bar, or a coffee shop. Can you concentrate? Can you find space to create?

 

This Unfocused Writer's Guide is all about the places that David has tried to write and what kind of technology (from pens to computers) he has used to get the words down. 

 

This guide is a funny and informative look at allowing your location to be part of the writing process.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Macpherson
• Release date: Nov 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201779115

Book preview

1

The Book in One Brief Chapter

This is the third book in the Unfocused Writer’s Guide Series, and for the third time, I am giving you the whole book in one brief little chapter. It’s my gift to you. I know we are busy people. You are looking at the sample pages before you download this book and you read this chapter and you think, why do I have to go on with this book?

The answer is, you don’t. You can be done.

Where is the best place to write? Wherever you like to do it. I think the best way is if you have a set place to write. A place you have access to. A place that allows you to focus. What is focus? Well, it is the amount of attention you want to give to your work.

There are other places to write. You can write on a park bench, in a bar or in any of several Starbucks. Peak in, you will see a bunch of pent up Hemingways banging away at the Great American Novel, in between double shots of overpriced espresso.

You can write in the car. Yes. In the car. You can write by dictating.

And that’s the thing with where you write; it is connected with the mode of writing. Do you write on a laptop, in a notebook with a pen, or do you dictate it into a digital recorder? Each of these have their benefits.

Personally, I have gotten to the point of writing on a laptop in the spare bedroom. I use Google Docs, because it is available on my phone as well on other computers I might be using at the time. The more accessible the way to write, the better chance I will actually write.

The place you write and the way you are writing it all down can be slowed or even stopped if you pick the wrong instrument, the wrong location.

What is the best place for you to keep on writing? Well, write there.

And that’s the book. See you.

If you want more. If you just love the way I string words together and want to see what other gems of wisdom I have for you, the next chapter awaits.

2

A Fella Needs His Poor Writer’s Garret

When I was a kid who first wanted to be a writer, there was no word-processing. There was no cloud storage or anything cool and helpful. What was around was a typewriter and the belief that writing was important and difficult stuff. Personal computers were starting to appear when I was that wanna be writer at eight years of age, but they were nothing more than a circus trick. You could watch them jump through hoops, but they didn’t seem to be anything you could apply to your life. This was technology before its time.

Electric typewriters were the accepted technology. Of the age. You could slam out a lot of words on one of those, and there was a correction ribbon, to fix your mistakes and you could get a clean copy of your manuscript after two or three tries.

And a writer made a lot of noise. You had to go up to your attic to write. You couldn’t write at night, or the baby would never get to sleep. Who wants such a racket? So the