Guest Post–Adriene (A.D.) Joyce and Her Writing Space

Although I ultimately manage to pull it all together, my writing space seems to fall into three realms. Haphazardness is the common thread among them.

The first realm is home, where I do the writing that is most important to me—namely poetry, blog posts, and essays. For my prose pieces, I use my laptop. My laptop is like an appendage and is never more than a foot away from me, even if I’m not using it.

Sometimes I have it with me in the living room and I write while the television is on. I can concentrate quite well on these projects when I have noise to block out. Needless to say, when I’m in this mode, I have no idea what happening on the tube. Thank goodness for my DVR.

All in all, though, my home venue of choice is my bedroom, on my bed, which is invariably unmade.

On my bed is where I usually write my poetry, always in silence. I use pen and paper, at least for the first few drafts. Longhand is the only way I can initiate writing a poem. Longhand feels more organic to me than typing does; it makes me feel intimately connected to the words.

I have tons of notebooks to write in. From one poem to the next, I rarely use the same notebook twice in a row. Quite often, though, I bypass the notebooks and write on paper that is going to be thrown out anyway–like a bill stub, an opened envelope, or an unneeded computer printout.

The second writing space realm is in my head. I firmly believe that an important part of the writing process is thinking about it. I spend time seemingly staring into space. My inner circle is understanding about this, thank goodness.

When I’m driving, I exist in parallel universes. I am paying careful attention to the road but on another plane I’m mulling over words and ideas in my head.

Quite a bit of thinking goes on while I’m in the bathroom. I’ll spare you the goriest details. But I will say that when time permits, I soak in a bathtub filled to the rim with perfumed water as warm as I can stand it and suss out the details of my work in progress. When a phrase gets stuck in my head and I find myself repeating it over and over, that‘s when I know I have something good to work with.

The third realm is at my job as editor for a medical magazine. My desk looks like a tornado has blown through the office. Work has been known to get “misplaced” under the rubble. But for the most part I know where everything is. On those rare occasions when I try to organize the clutter, I get flustered because I can’t find anything.

Adriene Joyce is a poet and editor living in New Jersey. Her blog, Sweepy Jean Explores the (Webby) World, showcases her poetry and discusses topics such as the writing life, women’s issues, and personal observations. Her new ebook, 30 Poems, 30 Days: Inside a Poet’s Mind, is available at Smashwords as a free download.