Saturday, July 16, 2011

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE TOOLS

While visiting a friend one day, I asked upon my arrival if there was anything I could do. Thinking along the lines of laundry, errands, perhaps grocery shopping.  She smiled and dropped the crutches beside her chair. As she lowered herself to a semi-comfortable position, she said, "would you mind cooking lunch for us here?"
"Of course not, I volunteered."
She sat with her injured leg propped up while I attempted to cook lunch.
I know where everything is in my own kitchen. And I have "favorite tools." 
It occurred to me that cooking in my friends kitchen is little bit like my writing.
I have favorite tools, and even though I am often using my lap top somewhere other than home, I have tools I use all the time.
What makes you a better writer? What "favorite tools" do you use to help you?
Are you comfortable writing somewhere else? Or do you always sit in the same chair, at the same desk to write?
I'd love to hear from you. 

4 comments:

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

I find music important. Nothing too rock and roll, more instrumental. Also quiet helps. LOL. And nice weather. LOL. I'm laughing because at present the weather is temperamental and the house has people coming and going. Okay, so maybe I need to write at night when they're sleeping.

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Joy, I love your new pic! You are beautiful. And I imagine you can write in the shower!!!! ha ha
Love you
Katt

Carol J. Garvin said...

Tools? Yes, I have my favourites... my laptop is the most used and useful, but I also have favourite styles of notebooks and favourite pens. I'm blessed to have a quiet office with another reliable computer, but I write a lot in the family room, and in good weather sometimes out on the deck. The only public place I've been able to write is the library. We had "write ins" there once a week during last November's NaNoWriMo, and I was surprised at how much I accomplished. I prefer the solitude of working at home, but I take the laptop whenever we go visiting, and I write in the last hour of the evening when everyone else has gone to bed.

Now, working in someone else's kitchen??? That's different. Except for at my DD's and DIL's homes, I feel useless! Can't lay my hand on anything and hate having to ask all the time. :)

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Carol,
Somehow we got through lunch! I've been in that kitchen enough to know about where everything is.
I'm such a creature of habit---when my husband doesn't put my favorite pen back in it's place---well, I think you understand! Ha ha
Hugs