What are your writing habits?

Given how much time I spend writing at a computer (be it for this blog or my book), I thought I'd indulge in a little more navel-gazing about my writing habits. What I write is usually dictated by my surroundings and the time of day, and as much as I might like to change things a bit I can't help my own quirks & predilections.

When I write about peer-reviewed research or any post involving a number of technical papers, I'm usually writing at a desktop PC connected the university system. The ability to type a search term into google scholar, download a slew of papers, and glue everything together makes it very easy to write on technical subjects. I usually do this during the day when I have access to computers that are so connected, although I would write such posts more often if I had that advantage at home.

A little over a year ago World of Warcraft fried the video card on my desktop PC, and rather than replace the old machine I purchased a relatively new Mac iBook from a friend. The iBook is not without its charms, but I've never been quite comfortable with it. I'm hoping to get a new desktop PC sometime in the near future, but the point is that at home I don't have access to technical papers except those sent to me/saved on the hard drive, and that somewhat hinders my work. To help combat this I try to come up with topics that I can mine my library for information about over weekends, and this results in more general "history of" posts than notes on the latest research.

Working on my book is a different affair altogether. I've been writing it on a refurbished 1995 Dell laptop that takes ages to start up and sounds like its crushing ice while it's doing so. Using it, though, allows one computer to remain plugged in to the internet while I hop on the bed next to my bookshelf, turn out all the lights except one small lamp, grab a bottle of Woodchuck hard cider from the fridge, and write for a few hours. I write best when I have the apartment to myself on Sunday nights, but even generally speaking I'm more motivated to work on the book after the sun has gone down than during the day. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but I imagine it's that the work of the day is essentially over and I can concentrate on what I'm doing without worrying about errands, classes, going to work, or any other priorities. Plus, by the end of the day I've usually learned a few new things and it's easier to integrate them into my writing after I've had some time to mull them over.

Being that I'm going to be staying put in this small apartment for another year, I don't expect my writing habits to change much. Once I obtain a new desktop and finally transfer/organize the hundreds of papers I have floating around onto this hypothetical desktop I'll have a better reservoir of material from which to work, and I imagine that the better organization of so many resources would result in some more regular "uber-posts." I wish I had more availability to technical papers at home or that I had more time in the evenings to engage in writing projects, but for the moment I'm trying to keep a balance between meatier posts and off-the-cuff-fluff.

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I usually have one or two entries started at any time and saved in Wordpress. I do most of my writing at home and save files I'll need to a flash drive. I do have access to some journals while at home, but can't count on everything.

Writing your book on a completely different computer may be a good idea, because you'll get used to doing only that while on the computer instead of playing solitaire or surfing!

I hope you are saving regular dated drafts of your book somewhere. Burn regular copies on a CD and throw them in a CD folder. Even on Google documents (not shared with public) would be better than nothing... equipment does die.

I like to go to the library and write with a ballpoint pen on looseleaf. Otherwise I get too distracted with the internet. BUt then I have a hard time getting around to transferring it to computer.

At home, on my normal computer, but late at night.

The desire to stop and get some sleep is a mighty impetus to avoid the distracting Interweb and get the job done. I write from printed-out papers and I use a widescreen monitor so I can have a web browser and word processor on side by side. Probably saves a good 10 minutes over the course of each article.

You can connect to Google scholar via the Rutgers university libraries website from home. You just have to connect to the library website then use the databases link to get to Google scholar. Then you can download material to your heart's content, from the comfort of your couch!

Shh! Don't say that Melanie; now I have no excuse to be lazy!

Thanks for the info; I didn't know I could do that and will try it out tonight when I get home.

Thanks to everyone else for sharing your habits (and suggestions), too. I usually prefer using printed-out papers and resources, too, but I don't have a working printer at the moment and it's usually easier to snip text/images from what I'm working from, place it into the publishing program, write a summary, and see if I captured the point correctly. It is hell on my eyes, though.