[Robbie]

I thought it would be interesting to find out what positions you all preferred when writing fanfic.

Are you one to prefer to get on top of the keyboard and hammer away in anger, or do you prefer to sit back and take you time and prod away from behind the keyboard over an 8 hour period? Or do you spend time practicing on another computer before getting down to the serious stuff at home?

Do you prefer to write alone, and if so do you have the lights on or off? Or do you prefer to get together in a group and have a good session and swap plots? (That's sounds rude if you speak French, but I'm sure you know what I mean).



Well, c'mon. Who started these threads on "size" and "length"?

[Rous]

Both, lights out and alone.

[Rhapsody]

It all varies Rob, really, sometimes I get this line stuck in my head and I need to get it down... straight away, so with no pc around I jot it down as fast as I can. But then I can play hours of bejeweled or lemmings and let a story simmer for a while.

I do work alone, but I love those big collab session as well because most of the times they are crazy ones. Silence or noise: both work for me. Lights on or off: all the same. Location: no preferences. I cannot write though, if someone, like for instance my husband, keeps on interrupting me from what I write with asking ten thousand questions over and over again, or wanting me to do nice things together or to do chores... well I think you get the idea. So the best time is when I am alone at home or when we both have something to keep us occupied.

[NeumeIndil]

Lights on, alone in my desk chair, taking my time, with the gentle burbling of my fishtank as the only background noise. Groups and collab stuff are great fun, but sometimes to get the job done you just really need to be by yourself and relaxed and "in the zone".

[SilverMoonLady]

Well, 3 screaming kids make for good rage fic, but there's nothing like bent over the desk in nothing more than the glow of the computer screen and well oiled company for some serious smut biscuit (of course, lots of typos to clean up later in that case... )

(Really mostly in a drafty old office & hard chair or in my jammies at the compy at home, very very late... after smut research)

[DreadLadyFreya]

Any time, any where, any way I can.

[ZeeDrippyVessel]

For a while, I would draw the process out, lovingly caress the pen, play with it in my mouth, until I had the sentence laying perfectly in my head before committing it to the paper.

Many late nights, with only the monitor and desk light on, I would painstakingly enter what I had bestowed to the paper into an IM box to my beta.

I would wait, until she transfered it to a document and cleaned it before sending it back with suggested boldly marked in red and sometimes blue...

Then I have days where I just can't wait... I close my eyes and allow my fingers to fly over the keyboard... Rider 18 was done that way - in about 25 minutes. I threw it into spell check and sent it on.





What?




You were expectin - nah, I just type it up?

[ghettoelleth]

Laptops, as many as I can get. When one gets overworked, I just swap it out for a fresh one. Who needs a tower that requires me to constantly bend over and push its buttons when it feels the need for attention?

[Rhapsody]

[melissaofaharon]

As for me..I write it on paper, scribble out what I don't like, re-write..decide it's all crap and start over. Or I sit at the keyboard and type as fast as I can if I get a good idea. I prefer the lights out and to be alone. Why does this sound like some sort of scary movie??
But so far my Beta has not beaten me over the head yet for not sending her anything to read.
Melly

[Rhapsody]

[Maram68]

Alone, after the kids have gone to sleep, on my bed, at my Laptop, with music of TV in the background, enough light to see what I'm doing.

Unless its a collab with Alassante and Ghettoelleth ... then its chaos and mayhem

[NancyBrooke]

"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of -- but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." - Lazarus Long

Ocassionally I will take my laptop out for coffee somewhere they have (free) wireless internet, but mostly I write on the pixie box at my desk at home when my daughter's at school. Here's a picture:

http://www.nancybrooke.com/deskshot.htm

I also keep notebooks strategically placed about the house to catch the lightning thought, and I just bought those crayons that can write on the shower wall. OK - they're mostly for my daughter but I have used them for story ideas.

[SpaceWeavil]

[Annamire]

Although I don't have anything posted here yet, I find it's easiest to write in my favorite chair in my little "study". Dimmed lights, my lucky pen (Dubbed Flying Circus to go along with Monty and Python) and a CD usually help get the creative juices flowing.

I always try to keep a journal to base stories -whether fanfic or not- on personal experiances. It just makes it seem more your own.

Anyways, I have a keyboard in my study and when I get a major writer's block, I just pull it out from the back of my desk and play some of my favorite songs until inspiration comes. Or I just pop in a CD (3 Doors Down and Evanescence have been recent inspiration)

My sister, on the other hand, sprawls out on the floor or sits at a desk with her papers in discord all around her and writes everything on looseleaf paper before handing it off to me, then either our friends Haley or Hannah for editing and then has a beta from one of her favorite sites too. ><

But, I'm pretty flexiable when it comes to scenery. One of my favorite short stories I wrote while on a friend's computer in a train...

~Annamire