by Jorn Lier Horst, Norway
Last month I did an interview with ScandinavianTraveler. They wanted a picture of me at the place where I write my books.
I have my own writing room. It is an office located in an old, abandoned naval base - in the cadet barracks, a huge wooden building erected in 1774 (with a ghost in the attic). Aptly enough,
The Norwegian Police Academy is housed in the same area and educates yearly 300
policemen and women here. The picture below is borrowed from the article.
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| Welcome to my office |
But the truth is that I write everywhere. At airports,
hotels, trains, cafes. Right now I am sitting in an hotel room i Ørsta, a small town in the western part of Norway. I am not bound to a single writing spot. For me it's more about
the state of mind than a physical location. To feel the flow so that I forget
that I actually are sitting and writing.
Some have it differently. They rely on a fixed place
where they can shut the world out and create their own.
I've never had romantic thoughts about my own place
that provides inspiration. Have never had a separate pen or a particular paper
I need to use. The ideas are coming or not coming. Where I write them down is
just a practical question.
Posts
I'm writing on my keyboard, but I need to figure out some other way, as now I'm all confused about which keys cause which letters because there are two many letters written on all of the keys and I end up using BACKSPACE far too much until I find the right key. It's also hard to get more than a short story written on the keycaps before I have to buy a new keyboard. It's very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Jorn, I can write wherever I am, and I do. I type first drafts because I want to get the ideas out as fast as possible. I then print and edit on paper. And edit and edit. I have been known to do that on a crowded subway. I find long train rides very especially conducive. I can work with any tools available, but I do find a comfortable fountain pen and nice paper very pleasant and try to provide myself with them. I think I would use a sharpened stick and mud if I had no other choice. I could not stop if you held a gun to my head. It's a compulsion!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard for me to work without music playing. But there is almost nothing I can do without music playing. That is whole other story.
How human minds are and are not alike. I cannot - repeat - cannot - write well WITH music - it is too distracting! Maybe, just may be because one of my best gifts is making up music on a piano or organ... tstraw
DeleteJørn do tell us about the ghost!
ReplyDeleteI can write anywhere as long as I have a computer. Pen and paper wouldn't work both because I can brainstorm with myself using a word processor and because I'd never be able to decipher what I had written. For comfort reasons, I prefer writing standing up. No music for me, because I can't stop conducting when I hear it!
ReplyDeleteI'm like Stan - I can write anywhere if I have a computer (or my little neo, which is a smaller word processor-only device, but it has a keyboard) - but I do have to be sitting down. I don't listen to music because it interferes with the flow of the words.
ReplyDeleteAnd, like Cara, I want to hear more about the ghost!
I'm not too worried about where I write either, but it must be reasonably quiet and free of interruptions. I don't conduct music but it still pulls my attention away from the writing.
ReplyDeleteI am a fountain pen writer - fountain pens and note books. I obsess over them the way other folk obsess over cars, shoes and I-phones. The plotting happens while I am running or driving to work, the recording of those thoughts happens in the comfy chair with dog/ cat etc. Then I type it up when I somewhere awful and tedious....like a hotel room!
ReplyDeleteI want everyone to know that Stan copied from my paper in describing how he writes. The only difference is I don't stand when I write...or is it don't right when I stand?
ReplyDelete