I go through these periods where all I want is quiet. External, digital, all of it. I just want to shut it off and isolate myself in some manner of sensory deprevation. No cats. No friends. No grounds crew cutting the lawn. No people painting the house next door and replacing boards and cutting boards and nailing boards and, and, and…
It gnaws at my sanity a little bit, and the problem is, I’ve reached a point in my life where actually achieving that feels unnatural. Then I start to worry about how long until someone notices I’m missing? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Do I dare take an entire hour?
I think a lot of it comes from the modern pressures of things like cell phones and wi-fi. So many people expect us to be connected wherever we go. Double so when for me, disconnecting still means I want my laptop with me. I just don’t want to be online for it.
And I think it eats away at some of our internal peace as a whole. It removes that zen-like state that would help keep us a little more sane. A little less pressured. A little less insane.
And I suspect for writers, it might even help us focus on the story more.
Or maybe I’m the only one stuck in this rut. But if I can’t block out the sound, how can I lose myself in these worlds I want so desperately to create?
Do you have a place you can go that gives you a few moments of peace, or can you just up and go every day and integrate with all you need to do without issue?
Not every day, but I try to go to the library once every week or so. It’s quiet, you have to pay to use the wi-fi, and there’s a great cafe for when I need a break. I can go there and write for 4 hours and get more done than I can in about 10 at home or at work.
Hey, I blogged about this the other day! =) Great minds think alike and (to quote my best friend from high school), so do ours.
http://crystalcollier.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-day-of-rest-of-your-life-deep.html
Quiet is the new sanity. Yay for banishing the noise.
My office is in the master closet. The folks who built the house built it like I would have built it — the entire master suite is completely soundproofed from the rest of the house!
I lock myself in the closet, hit the fan so I don’t burst into flames, hook up the speakers and hang out with The Offspring and Puddle of Mudd and man, I need some new music…
It’s a little distracting at times. The dogs and kids and wife poke their head in, but I stop what I’m doing and indulge them.
It’s good to be missed, you know.
– Eric
Hi! I’m still visiting my A-Z list.
I generally like as quiet a working space as possible, but my cats have other priorities, and that’s fine too.