What do you wear to write?
After yesterday’s deluge of responses – and boy, aren’t we all different – I wanted to explore another subject. I know writers who say their main work-related pleasure is that they can schlep around in a dressing gown all day. I can’t.
To write, I have to be properly dressed. Okay I don’t put on a business suit and crisp white blouse or anything like that (as those who’ve met me will testify, I’m most often to be found in hiking boots and my gardening jacket!) but I do have to be fully dressed and businesslike to produce good prose.
I had a student once who nearly gave up writing when his wife gave away his ‘writing’ shirt. He claimed it was lucky and that without it, he couldn’t feel inspired. Funnily enough, I used to have an old grey sweatshirt that I wore most days to write in. On seeing his angst over losing his writing prop, I put that sweatshirt in the bin because I didn’t want to become superstitious about my writing apparel.
What do you wear to write, or doesn’t it matter to you at all? Didn’t William Burroughs claim to write naked? Be warned – nude writers might be asked to supply photographs as evidence!
5 Comments
Nik's Blog
12th December 2006Good question! I think if you’re serious about writing then you treat it as a profession. And by that I mean taking it seriously and giving it the respect it deserves.
For me, it’s up and straight in the shower. Dress, then reakfast, brew and cigarette (I know, I know) and then straight into the office. I treat it as a job. It is a job. That means, even though I work from home, I NEVER have the telly on, let other things distract me and never take longer for lunch than I need. I wear anything (don’t actually think that’s all that important – the attitude’s what matters). Jeans and a jumper usually do.
Whenever I do an appearance (signing, workshop etc) I always make sure I’m smart. This past few months (for book promo) I’ve favoured a suit. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc-aRQIj2S0
I’ll bet that was a more thorough answer than you’d expected!
Nik.
Kay Sexton
12th December 2006Well, that’s you and me both Nik – I definitely dress up for readings and signings, I feel the audience deserves to know that I respect them enough to want to look clean and decent, at the very least.
TitaniaWrites
13th December 2006Gosh, I am impressed by you both, because I am firmly in the “pyjamas” camp. I have been working from home for 12 years, and have never felt the need to get dressed before starting work. I shoot out of bed, put the kettle on, and while it is boiling (much to my partner’s chagrin, he’d like us to breakfast formally together) head up to the computer. I only get dressed to leave the house. For me, comfort is all important when I am writing.
Am eager to hear from other pyjama-writers! Great question.
LMD
14th December 2006Interesting question with interesting answers. I’m firmly in the “treat it like a profession” camp, where I get up to an alarm, hit the shower, dress (usually leggings and a cowl-necked sweater, bare feet), get my coffee pressed and poured, then my office. My computer also faces a wall (and by the way, Kay, if you have to turn 360 degrees to see something, you’re looking at the very thing you just left; 180 degrees is the opposite direction).
I write to a timer, and have done so for years. mine is 50 minutes, then a ten-minute break, where I usually go outside and roughhouse with the dogs, jog down the street, lift weights, dance to rhythmic music.
But once I’m refreshed (approx 10 minutes, anyway), all noise and distractions are set aside, I face the wall in a tiny alcove of my office, and write.
Too bad it’s all non-fiction for pay right now, because fiction is nagging.
Kay Sexton
14th December 2006Ah, that proves how bad I am with numbers – 180 degrees was what I meant!