Gracen's Writing Enviornment

Hi! It’s Gracen here, waving at you, thinking ‘Happy Friday’! I hope everyone has had a great week. If not, remember, there is hope it’s TGIF!

Okay, now to my blog. Writing environments. My biggest complaint is that I do not have a dedicated office. My so-called “office” is a computer hutch stuck in the corner of the dining room. It looks real nice in there with the dining room table and china cabinet. And, yes, I’m using a TON of sarcasm right now. But we work with what we have, right?

Typically, I keep my laptop at the kitchen table. It’s easily removed when we want to eat dinner at the table, and it’s always accessible. Besides if I wanted to work at my office desk slash dining room, I’d have to clean off the chaos that currently clutters that desk. Trust me, it’s not a pretty sight. BUT, I know right where everything is. My husband will be digging in there trying to find something (that truly annoys me by the way because I’m a tad neurotic and territorial when it comes to my space) and I’ll go in there and immediately put my hands on whatever he’s looking for.

I’m probably the most boring person in the world when it comes to writing environments. I can write anywhere, anytime, anyway so long as I have inspiration and someway to write. I prefer a computer, but if I don’t have one handy, I’ll write with paper and pen. I’ve been known to write with the “mighty sword” just about anywhere, at my son’s football practices, while waiting for them at karate class. I do not mind utilizing all my spare time, anyway that I can.

I don’t need silence, I prefer it, but it truly is not necessary. What I can’t have is someone talking in my ear while I’m trying to write. When I’m writing my six-year-old son loves to come stand beside me and ask in that little boy voice, “What you doing?” If I just grunt with a vague “writing”, that doesn’t satisfy him. Oh, no, he’ll proceed to tell me he sees sight words. He’s in kindergarten so it’s all about sight words. The first time he said that to me, I was like, “yeah, a bunch of sight words.” Then he commenced to sounding out a word. Here’s how it went (now remember he says each sound 3 times for one letter): “fu-fu-fu”, “uh-uh-uh”, “ca-ca-ca”, “ca-ca-ca”.

Yes, you guessed it: The four-letter “F” word!

My heart froze in my chest! My eyes widened—I know they did—because I was so horrified. I knew immediately which word he had zoomed in on. Of all the words on the screen and he picks out the “F” bomb? OH—MY—GOD! I did NOT need him learning that word or utilizing it at school. Uh uh, no way!

I slammed my computer (it’s a laptop) shut and dragged him away from the computer screen. He tried digging in his heels telling me he was sounding out a word. Trying to read Mama’s smut is what he was doing.

We compromised; we sat down and read one of his “age appropriate” books, Dick and Jane, one of his favorites. We didn’t find any “F” words in there! =)

Have a great weekend everyone!