I am a little late this week. That’s because Monday’ s welcome but quite heavy rain caused a power outage. Not the neighbourhood or even the street. A quite small power outage confined to one part of our house. We could still use the kitchen and we had the tele and lights so it wasn’t entirely awful. But my desk computer was out of action.

We weren’t the only ones in the district with rain related power problems of course and it was three days before the circuit was reconnected. I am now once again sat in my office chair, at my desk, mouse in hand. Well I don’t really have a desk. It’s a an old door made into a trestle table and it’s big enough to have several piles of stuff-on-the-go on it as well as reference books, cups of tea, chewing gum, my ipad and phone etc. It looks terrible but works for me.

Now during the power crisis I did have a laptop and a power socket for charging. And I did use the laptop for various emails and jobs that I couldn’t put off. I just didn’t do any writing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not even my regular weekly blog post.

I’ve worked out why. There’s a genuine reason for my non-writing. I finally realised that I hate doing  “proper writing” on a laptop. I despise the little screen. I loathe the way the trackpad works. I don’t like writing in the kitchen. The chairs are OK for eating at but not for writing. No Way. Work should be separated from other aspects of life.

Of course I know that I could have connected a mouse or a big screen to the laptop. I could have brought the laptop to my power-less trestle table. I might even have tried to move my office chair. I could have used the laptop if there was no alternative – and I even have at writing retreats. But I didn’t. I just couldn’t bring myself to it. The conducive accoutrements and place do make a difference for me. Power problem sorted, I’ve happily settled down in my expensive ergonomic chair at my free DIY trestle table to work on the costly big screen.

So yes, I’ve got more than a little inflexible about everything being Just So when I want  to write.

I don’t expect that what works for me is true for you. People are different. Everyone finds what works for them. I know that some people love to use their laptops and, when they are writing, they love to move around from place to place. Coffee shop to restaurant to library. And I know not everyone has the luxury of a desk and chair in a space where they can generally work uninterrupted. I believe that some people, like Jean Piaget above, even like working in an environment that most of us would consider a mess.

Within constraints, we all find our optimum working space. Our favorite non-back-injuring chair. The workable time when we can write. The best tech we can manage. And then we get on with it.

So I’m just here this week to say to people who are starting a doctorate, moving house, moving country or even just finding it hard to settle into a writing routine – spare a moment to think about your environment.

Paying attention to what it is that you need by way of where, when and how to write is not a trivial matter. It may not matter to some. And that’s fine. But if it matters to you, or you wonder if it might, it really is worth spending some time – and money if you have it – on getting the right writing environment.