Paying for a dedicated space to write - worth it?

If there is a college or university where you live, they should have a library with working space. During exam times, these areas are usually crowded with stressed students, but at other times they are nice and silent and should offer a good environment to work. Here in Germany, where I live, they don't check if you're affiliated with the university. Everyone can enter.
 
I’m more about routine than a special place. However absurd this might sound, I am very productive on the Tube. I teach in 12 schools across London so I travel a lot every day.

iPad and Scrivener along with my earphones and white noise generator (or John Carpenter soundtracks) are all I need. I can write anywhere like that.

I think part of it might be that I write horror so the Tube is full of inspiration...

pH
Whether it's horror or not, I often get more done on my 20-minute train journeys than I would in an hour at home. Another benefit to public transport over driving.
 
If at all possible, if you feel you need a dedicated writing space, it would be best to carve one out at home—even if it's just a desk in the corner of your bedroom, or a walk-in closet or breakfast nook or other space you can convert. Look and around and think creatively; there may be such a space with potential that you've not been noticing.

If you can find a dedicated space at home, it will be instantly available to you if you suddenly have the urge to leap from your bed and start writing when your brain starts teeming with ideas in the middle of the night. Also, reference books and things you scribble down on random pieces of paper are less likely to get lost.

But training family members and/or other housemates to leave you alone when you are at your desk is often more difficult than finding the physical space. If I ever figure out how to do that—I've been working on it for about forty years—I will let you know. Fair warning: even when you are making a more or less steady income from writing, unless it is a large income, family members may still regard writing as your hobby. But naturally it depends on the individuals involved.
 
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I like your chicken. What's her name? :)

She's Random Pale Hen With Brown Bits No. 2.
Sometimes referred to as Horus-clone, even though she doesn't look much like Horus, and even Horus has now lost the Eye of Horus markings she had as a chick.
We end up with a lot of hens named for their appearance as chicks, which changes completely as they grow up.:unsure:

A chick called Horus.jpg

(And besides, Horus is now also known as "Momma Flake" because she turned out to be absolutely hopeless at looking after her chicks.)

Don't be silly. Dinner is a boy's name.:cry:
 
Wikipedia to the rescue:
No, no, not at all.
The given that most so-called 'chefs' (or better: frauds!) nowadays use ordinary chickens in stead of cocks to prepare their 'coq au vin' doesn't suddenly mean cocks couldn't or shouldn't be dinner. Or be named 'Dinner'.
If anything, your 'Wikipedia to the rescue' only confirms it. ;)
 
Dinner can't be a boy's name, you don't eat cocks.

Sorry, that just modern rubbish. We only eat cocks. (Except for one hen called Custard Face, who was systematically pecking a gosling to death.)
We have hens, who lay eggs. Until the cocks figure out how to do that, they're called Dinner. (Apart from the one called Daddy and the one called Spare Daddy.)

The challenge is eating the cocks fast enough. We don't eat meat often, but the hens would like us to move the schedule along.

There are a few key aspects to successful sex for the young cock:

1: Stealth.
2: Speed.
3: The flying ****. (generally the end point following 1 and 2)
4: Joining the queue to jump the hen too tired to run any more.

The key tactics for the hens when there are young cocks around are:
1: Keep close to Daddy who will kick the **** out of any young cock coming too close (very effective)
2: Stay alert (medium effective)
3: Maintain sprint training (works if there's aren't too many of them chasing)
4: When you're too tired to run any more, have enough breath in reserve to scream and maybe Daddy will notice (long shot)
5: Give me looks that say "How about that one for Sunday?" (Sorry, lentils this weekend.)
 
Wikipedia to the rescue:
Although the word coq in French means "rooster" or "cock", and tough birds with lots of connective tissue benefit from braising, most modern coq au vin recipes use ordinary chicken.

And that is probably misleading as well because I suspect what they really mean by "ordinary chicken" is modern commercial meat breeds that are ready to cull at 2 months old and don't have time to build up the sort of connective tissue that you would get in our hens as well as the cocks. The connective tissue is what you get with muscles that have actually done some work running around the fields.

We bought 3 meat birds by accident years ago, bred to be shop-ready in 8-10 weeks as I recall. They were big when we bought them - two hens and a cock, that we named Fat Boy and the Chubbettes.

When we ate Fat Boy, he weighed in at 7kg (15lbs) oven-ready weight, and we had no choice because his legs collapsed under his own body weight, despite being free-range. One of the Chubbettes died suddenly, probably a heart-attack, which apparently is common for the breed if you don't eat them at the 10 week point. The third, the smallest, got renamed Chubbers, lived three or four years and raised a couple of rounds of chicks.
 
My mind ain't never been right. I'm not saying a word... :censored:

*crawls back in the gutter*

K2
 
I think there's some over-sharing from Biskit here :ROFLMAO:
 
If at all possible, if you feel you need a dedicated writing space, it would be best to carve one out at home—even if it's just a desk in the corner of your bedroom, or a walk-in closet or breakfast nook or other space you can convert. Look and around and think creatively; there may be such a space with potential that you've not been noticing.

If you can find a dedicated space at home, it will be instantly available to you if you suddenly have the urge to leap from your bed and start writing when your brain starts teeming with ideas in the middle of the night. Also, reference books and things you scribble down on random pieces of paper are less likely to get lost.

I don't doubt that this is true for some, but it's never really been the case for me. I have my own 'office', a very understanding and generally quiet wife who happily enjoys her own quiet hobbies (painting and gardening), and the only other residents are three cats who, while they can be quite noisy and demanding at very specific times of the day, are otherwise usually no bother. Despite all that, I've never gotten anywhere until I moved my writing to an external space.

Of course I'm sure it's not simply the location, but the mindset. I could probably train myself to set aside the same amount of time at home and eventually start writing with the same regularity and productivity, but for the moment taking myself away from the comfort of home is what's working, so I'll carry on doing that.

This is, of course, one of those glorious writing things where one size just doesn't fit all!
 
I think there's some over-sharing from Biskit here :ROFLMAO:
It's not over-sharing, it's useful research input on food supply for your next medieval fantasy. :whistle:
(Apart from the bit where ageing hens get a full-care retirement rather than going in the pot.)
 

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