Yes the first answer might be 'on paper' but I was curious as to whether others write letters whenever/wherever they are or do you have a specific place or time to answer letters. I'm a mixture as I keep pending letters in an aluminum case that I can carry with me but I also like to set time aside specifically to answer letters.


Kurt

Mostly at a Cafe' where I used to go while taking a break from work.
Now mostly at home late at night when mostly everyone is asleep.

My local pub.

I wrote a long response to another member last night, and since I had papers scattered all over the table, I ended up fielding a lot of questions about handwriting and fountain pens. I think that was mostly because I was sitting by the front window. I have more privacy when I sit at one of the back tables.
Other frequent places of composition:

• the bus/subway;
• at my desk or outside, during lunch;
• in the computer room/living/room/bedroom while watching tv;
• in the backyard while sunning.

spelling edit

So do I: bistrots & home, late at night
I also write on transportations (never go anywhere withtout a pen/Moleskine and a sublaptop). I also write... at work (cool job, I know )

When I am writing for pleasure, I write on the dining room table, early in the morning 2:00, 3:00 am. I write by candle light. My dog snores all curled up in my favorite chair by the fireplace and all is well with the world.

I can seldom write non-work related things at home or at work. I write almost exclusively in cafes. Can sit there for hours writing, and Vienna thankfully is very good for that. They EXPECT you to sit there for hours, as opposed to glare at you to leave if you've finished your coffee. Also, nobody here finds it at all strange if I have papers and notebooks and a case of fountain pens spread all over the table. I have even seen a man in a cafe I go to, extract an ink bottle from his briefcase and fill a (piston-fill) pen, after putting a couple of napkins over the white table cloth. The waitress did not bat an eye as she brought him his coffee. She simply placed the coffee on the table next to the ink bottle while he was filling up and walked off.

When I am in Boston though, I suffer from the lack of nice coffee shops. Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just me? Particularly in Cambridge: everything is either too cramped, or the coffee is not good, or the opening hours are very limited. I would prefer to patronise non-chain shops, but in the Cambridge part of Boston I find that Starbucks is the most pleasant, tasty, peaceful and convenient option. I don't want that to be the case, but it is. If anybody knows different, I would love some suggestions.

Since I do not write letters very often, but mostly notes, stories, or chapters for academic books, the transportation of papers is not such a big issue. I keep most of my writing in a Moleskine large grid notebook, and I go through these at the rate of one per month or so. Then I catalog them and store them on a book-shelf, labeled at the spine. But the notebook I use at the time, I can carry around anywhere, and there it is -- my written world at my fingertips all the time.

As for public transportation: I have stopped writing in transit after a stabbing incident. (I stabbed myself with an XXF nibbed pen while on a moving S-Bahn train!...)


QM2

I write my letters, journal, and fiction at my desk at home for the most part. I have an inclined drawing/writing board with a parallel edge that works marvelously. I have written out on the couch and at cafe's with my laptop, but not really since I started using fountain pens. I did write for a bit in the living room on a lap desk, but it wasn't the most comfortable thing ever.

I write mine from my roll-top desk at home. However, anything goes when I'm on travel.

I write on the move.

In cafes and bistros, hotels, train stations.

I use Moleskines. But even when I forget my notebook I am observing, writing in my head and remembering it for later when I sit down and compose the basic thoughts into poems.

I am interested in capturing snapshots. But rather than observational studies freeze-framing the physical universe I am more inclined towards capturing the emotional essence of a moment in life.

The smile of a girl at the window of a passing train, glanced only for a brief moment in my life. The cyclist under the wheels of a truck. The girl standing alone, crying at the subway station. The moth swinging to its death in the headlights.

These are passing moments. But what lies beyond the visible?

That is where my interest lies. For this reason a journalist who interviewed me for a literary magazine last year likened my work to "zen poetry" - capturing the essence of the unseeable.

Anyway, my apologies. I'm rambling.

I tend to write whenever I feel like writing, no set time. I do almost all of my writing here:

Click to view attachment

I guess I've got a dose of your ramble then, UVRAY. I mostly write at home in comfy chairs with a lap board, but thanks to my notebooks and pens, I go mobile wherever I find the opportunity to get into the flow. The results you can observe by clicking the link in my signature.

I am from a tribe of floor sitters. The world is my desk!

Doug

I write notes every day at work. I must confess, other than thank you notes, I haven't written a letter for 10 years.

I usually write from my desk (like Lozzic's) which is next to my aquarium. When I'm on the move or working I'll write on my clipboard at a table of some sort. In all truths location doesn't matter, with the exception of noise levels.

Oh, I loved Vienna coffee shops. They were wonderful, their cappuccinos were to die for, and the Sacher Torte was some of the best cake I've had. I didn't have time to write, unfortunately. I ate, took pictures, visited the convenient Mont Blanc store, and continued taking in the amazingness (and Hapsburg supremacy). When I was there (about a month ago), I openly booed at the handful of Starbucks. My only problem with the cafes in Vienna was the smoking. I would imagine that French cafes would be more ideal now because of their nationwide anti-public smoking laws.
Here in the States, I go to a locally owned coffee shop where there are people studying academic material, writing books on their laptops, reading, and just enjoying socializing. Very different from the hectic atmosphere of Starbucks.

Doug

is that gold and black cloth under your FPs on the corner of the desk a pen holder of some sorts...??

cheers Trevor
ps nice to see another Mac person around here...

I used to write in coffeeshops, not sure why that changed but it did. Now I write on my bed (have a great backrest). Sometimes I wander into the kitchen and write on the kitchen table.

Panera's is our local chain and I find it too noisy on the whole. Hard to carry on a conversation in there at times, depending on which location and time of day.

Agreed. I used to sit in a Panera located just off campus in the early evenings before going to class, but the kids made it too loud to really enjoy the place so I stopped doing that. I write at a writing desk at home, or in my office at work as time permits. In the late evenings sometime I write in bed, but it's not conducive to long term writing - I tend to doze off now when not mobile, and my wife is always worried that I'll drop off and get ink on the sheets.

- R

It's some kind of Japanese-style cloth bag. Green, black, and goldish weave of some kind... I put my pens on them so they don't get scratched. The Mac is a pre-Intel vintage, but I keep a Windows laptop out of sight and VNC into it so I can have both operating systems to play with.

Doug

the best place for one ....

I do maybe 20% of my writing at home,and maybe 70% at the University Library, and maybe 10% at coffee shops.
The time at the Library is the most productive- it is usually in a one-person carrel ,with distractions, and it is really quiet.
I h ave ADD real bad, so, I get really easily distracted if I am at home or at my favorite coffee shop.

This is definitely factor for me. It's more a problem with writing fiction than letters. The Caribou coffee chain here in MN has a semi-secluded lounge area that is actually usually quiet enough to get some writing done. I have four kids, so sometimes a coffee shop is actually quieter.

Hello,

Work-related writing takes place exclusively on the computer due to time saving. Private writing happens mostly in cafés, in airports, in airplanes (no fountain pens then but pencil), sometimes at home.



Indeed, but one ends up smelling like an ash tray because Viennese cafés are hardly smoke free. Are you from/in Vienna, QM2? Are we talking about Vienna, Austria or Vienna, Virginia?

Nick

I write just about anywhere but like to use my lapboard or desk at home. Out of the house, I usually draft responses to letters or craft commentary in pencil on cheap paper but I often use a pen if I am very sure of what I want to say. I do this because frequently, my steam of thought comments run to brutal observation, sarcasm or thoughtless asides intended to be funny but sometimes just not helpful. I self edit because someone once said getting a note or comments from me was like getting a visit from a serial killer.

Huh. I could have written that. I would have used different words... but, yes, "the emotional essence of a moment." That's a very good way of putting it.

You ought to feel free to ramble away, no apologies.

Just sayin'.

Here's my suggestion, QM2, made gently... don't apologize for patronizing Starbucks. It's ubiquitous for a reason. You listed a few good ones.

I'm not a huge proponent of Starbucks-- oh look, now I'm doing it! Why is that?!

Just go where you go. Judge the people who judge you!

Laughing.

This made me laugh. I tend to get very rambly and tangential in e-mails. I've been told that they can be hard to follow, so I've been trying to pay attention to that. Except when I'm tired... then all kinds of weird things come out... seemingly haphazardly, but I know there's an underlying logic... that isn't apparent to anyone else. Sigh.

With pen and notebook -- usually in bed, lying on my stomach (it isn't a good posture for me, but...) or sitting on the couch with a flat surface on a pillow on my lap.

I tend to write a lot of e-mail, so (for instance) right now I'm sitting on the couch with the laptop on a lapdesk (flat surface on a pillow).


Edit. If I'm taking notes... then it's anywhere I happen to notice something I want to remember.

Coffeeshops, all around New York, though I find places to patronize regularly for a few weeks before moving on. My recent preferred cafe is great, maybe even perfect. I have papers spread out, pens all over, and even melt wax and make seals with no comment. Plus, there is a mailbox right across the street, and it's open till midnight. After midnight there are a few places to go, though that usually just means I have to write at home.

I'd hate to think of what my writing would be reminiscent - it's probably like corresponding with a 12-year old boy. (For some recipients, anyway. Others just get normal letters. But the stream-of-consciousness ones - whoo boy, not high art, let me tell you!)

This describes my local Starbucks. It was the first cafe of this sort in town, and has the added advantage of being attached to a bookstore so I can pick up a book for light reading if I feel so inclined.

I love to write in barrooms. The noise is not distracting, nor is the drink. It actually becomes white noise that surrounds my creative side and doesn't let in doubts and reconsiderations. (<--- don't think that's a word).

I have a portable writing desk-type thing established in a zippered pad folio. I keep nice paper, envelopes, stamps, a notepad, thin Moleskine, and letters from people I need to write back to. Typically, I get a little time to write letters at lunch, or while waiting for people. Sometimes I write at night after the house is quiet, usually at my desk (which has two computers, an extra monitor, and a pile of stuff to sort through competing for space, at the moment). The desk is kinda cool, at least to me - it's an Anthro-cart with two levels, and it fits my needs and my space pretty well at the moment.

Wrote about my portable solution at D*I*Y Planner last year:

Writing Letters to Get Your Words Flowing

I love writing at coffee shops, when possible. Time is a real challenge to push together into larger chunks lately, though.


Most prolific site for me: laundromats, mostly while in or just after college. Warm, lots of white noise, people usually not saying much.

I write in one of the two following places:

1. At my desk. Within easy reach of my pen-chest, inks, paper and computer for music. Quiet and enjoyable.

2. On the tram. Despite the rocking, noise, jolting and weird looks from others, I find I can cram myself quite securely into a corner and write for hours.

You are my hero.

In my room or on the couch in the front room. If I have a lot to get done I go to the library.

I must say - that sounds extremely relaxing! I must try that one day...

That has changed recently (within the past few months). There are now smoke-free and partially smoke-free cafes all over Vienna. Vienna Austria : ) I am not from here, but live here currently.


QM2

I have been accused of being very disconnected in my ramblings. My brain works faster than I care to speak lest I sound like an auctioneer. I leave out connecting thoughts and often lose people who do not think the same way. It all makes sense to me, but often I need to explain my unspoken (or unwritten) connections.

I once collaborated with a professor who said most people are linear thinkers. He considered me a geometric thinker.

My best friend (someone who is actually brilliant) once looked at me with a puzzled expression and said he wanted to give me a word-association test.

Ahem.

I like that, "geometric thinker." That's way better than "kooky."

Hey, me too! I'm clearer when I write by keyboard because I "build up" what I'm saying. I write nonlinearly by typing in the conclusion, premise and connections in seemingly random order. Then I make sure everything is connected and in the proper order and the result is sometimes understandable to others. I'm using writing by hand as an exercise to "construct" my thoughts before putting them down. I'm getting better at it, but some of the victims (recipients) of my letters have received some incoherent strings of words. Without cut and paste, the pen having writ moves on...

Slightly off topic, I've noticed that in the history of writing, the quicker the means of writing became (dip pen to fountain pen to typewriter to computer to instant messaging), the shorter sentences get. Slower writing may require one to stack concepts in some kind of mental buffer before setting them down in fixed form. Oh nuts, now I'm rambling...

Doug

Wow! Someone else knows of Vienna, VA. I spent 20 years just down 123 from there in McLean. When my parents moved there in the late 60's Vienna was considered "out there" in the country. My how things change.

How I crave a burrito from Anita's or a chili dog from the Vienna Inn (if either of these establishments exist after my 15 years in "God's Waiting Room").

One desk, not seen has the computer, printer, turntable, phone, etc, on it, this one is where I do most of my pen and ink writing.
Click to view attachment

Oh cool! I bought one of those wooden curled up cats for my sister at TJ Maxx a few years ago.

Anyway, when I'm journaling it is is typical in my bed, but if I have a chance to journal during the day I journal in my car by a lake near my work, at Panera Bread (if I can find a nice quiet corner) or I sneak off to Barnes and Noble and sit in their cafe.

If our Caribou Coffee were not out of my way I'd journal there. It is much cozier and quieter than Starbuck's.

When I am writing letters it is most likely at my desk although I like to use the dining room table as well. I like being close to all of my paper and inks.

I carved that cat quite a long time ago from a cedar tree. The art teacher at St. X wanted to borrow the loom from my art room (city high school) and as a thank you gave me about 5 cedar trees cut down from her farm. I don't remember exactly how long it has been, but it was before my son was born and he is 27. I guess the cat is at least 30 years old. What I want to know is who stole my idea??? LOL.

I write everywhere. That's why I keep notebooks and writing implements in practically every corner of the house, and the car as well.

I love writing in the car. Just not when I'm driving.

When I had whooping cough I wrote in bed, with those composition notebooks propped up on my knees.

Oh, and then there's the magic white desk in my living room, from which sprang a loooong looong story, a sequel, and many other tales.

Harvard Square: Algiers, directly above Casablanca and the Brattle Theater. I've not tried to write letters in there, and it's been a while since I went there and lingered for hours, but I used to do that all the time and they generally don't mind at all. Also the coffee and tea drinks are exceptional.

Boston, intersection of Mass Ave and Newbury Street (ACROSS from the Hynes T stop, a little out of the way on the least used corner of that intersection): The Other Side Cafe. Good food, good drinks, they let you linger.

Boston, Symphony Hall area on Gainsborough St just past Huntington Ave: The Espresso Royale Caffe. Again, haven't frequented it for a year or two but I used to linger in there forever, especially in the summer to soak up their air-conditioning. Also good coffee. It is a chain, though.

There are more but they escape me for the moment. If you're interested, PM me and I'll dig them up from the dusty corners of my brain.

Where I write: almost always at my living room/dining room table. It's very big, and has enough room for me to spread out pens, stationery papers, stamps, other accoutrements... I need a lot of SPACE to write, and I don't have much success writing letters away from home. It's great to imagine all the other places where people write, though!

My main spot to write is a park next to the veterinary hospital I intern at during lunch. I sit under one of the huge cottonwoods to watch the geese graze the bluegrass and the Double Breasted Cormorants swim and dive in the nearby pond, reappearing a dozen feet away. Sometimes a Pelican is seen quickly traveling from one edge of the pond to the next searching for the half dozen or so species of fish that are found in it. The wind blows through the loose green leaves and the sun dries the grass while fighting the shade of the trees for an inch more of territory. Fisherman set their poles at one of the few benches on the pond's shore and more often go home having had not a single bite, while some see their hours of wait crest in the capture of a bluegill that is too small to keep and so they release it into the shallow depths of which it came. Ducks nibble at the small pond life they happen to find arrive in the tip of their beak, water falls in drops as they swallow. Children on bikes circle the pond once or twice then find something better to do, perhaps at the nearby comic store, or back home in front of their televisions. Couples who have seen the border between the Rocky Mountains and humanity silently and without tremendous murmurs move closer and closer walk the path as well, talking of their children, of their grand children, of places and people that once were. Young professionals find their way to the path, one hand holds a dog who is pulling at his leash in an attempt to come and see me, while the other hand pushes a stroller of a young but not infant child. Aphids climb my legs and arms as if I were a mountain to be conquered, red mites cover their bodies, and I wonder who is truly in control. Fox squirrels rustle in the bushes behind me, then pop up onto the top of a fence, pause and turn me, flicker their tail in warning, jump upon the nearest cottonwood and fly up to the top, either to their nest which I had seen in the winter, or to fly with careless certainty to the next tree over. A family comes with towels and baskets, they follow the geese until they spot the one they are after, it hobbles and flaps its wings, it has injured it's right leg. The mother and one of her sons aged no more than ten attempt to sneak up on it, the son walks farther ahead causing the bird to glide ten feet away, the mother scolds him, they try again, the sons continues to move too fast, and once more the mother scolds him. He yells back picking up the broken plastic laundry basket they brought to capture the bird and throws it, a basket that appears to be too small for any sized goose. A few more futile attempts are made, the goose takes no more and flies into the pond. The mother and father sit upon a picnic table in despair to why they and not the Division of Wildlife have to capture the bird. I walk to the trash nearby, look into their eyes, throw away my lunch. I walk back to the vet hospital, to hold a dog who does not understand the reasons for a blood draw, snapping at my hands that try to keep his arms from moving.

Photos?????? I'd understand if you'd rather keep it private, but it would be great to get a glimpse of your setups if you have them.