June Theme: Where I Write (And When I Can't) by Jody Feldman

If you happen to go to my website, you’ll seen the highly cleaned up version of my main workspace. (Look fast, though, because the website is soon changing.)


Until my house got turned upside-down by construction, the desk sat in what’s basically a pass-through room between the TV room and the rest of the house. Most important, it sat on the other side of the kitchen wall so I had ready access to brain fuel.

Right now, behind the plastic curtain which doesn’t keep out as much saw- and general dust as one might hope, I can still work.

And while this is my go-to space for first drafts and on-computer revisions, I employ two other highly important writing environments:


Most of you can understand why a writer might get up and take a walk. When I do, I first clear my head of anything book related. At some point in the middle of my walk, my brain magically drifts back to it and, on its own, works on plot or setting or characters while my heart gets the aerobic benefits.

But why theTV? It’s my main brainstorming tool when I create the puzzles I frequently incorporate in my books. I wish I could tell you how that works, but again we’ll have to go with magic.

And I’d stop there, but I should tell you one more thing about how I write. I can do it with the TV on. I can do it with a parade marching through my house. I’ve been doing it (because of the construction) with temperatures ranging from 52 to 90 degrees in here, with workers sawing and hammering and doing other stuff that makes weird sounds, with their radios blasting everything from classic rock to hard-core country. But put a friend or family member in the house, and forget it. Doesn’t matter if that person is totally silent and barricaded in another room. I can’t write. Unless of course, I’m in the zone. Anything’s possible in the zone.