Where Writers Work their Magic

Does it matter where you write?

Think about J.K. Rowling sitting in the back room of The Elephant House looking out over Edinburgh Castle writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I don't know about you, but I think looking at that magnificent castle everytime she sat down to write must have been like turning on the creativity spigot.

And what about D.H. Lawrence? I've read that his favorite writing spot was outdoors in nature, leaned up against a pine tree in New Mexico or a great fir in Nottingham forest. He said trees made the best writing companions because they were alive but didn't interrupt his thinking with a lot of chatter. (I may have paraphrased that just a bit.)

And of course there was the eccentric British poet Dame Edith Sitwell who wrote while lying in a white coffin. Pretty sure it was an open casket . . .

Whether it's on a train like thriller author John le Carré or walking to the office like poet Wallace Stevens, or even in a revolving writing shed like George Bernard Shaw (or one of my faves, Roald Dahl--whose shed remained stationary), it seems we like whatever it is that gets our creativity flowing. For me, it's my desk beside the fireplace early morning or late at night.

What is it that gets your creative juices flowing? Post a picture if you have one. I'd love to see you!