Where do you write?

A group of us playwrights were chewing the fat the other day over at NYU-Tisch Asia and the topic of where we write came up.

My buddy Bill said that he had to write at home.  Another said she wrote almost exclusively in coffee shops.  Another said she was mobile and whipped out her laptop when inspiration hit.

I admitted that I do the bulk of my writing in a cafe.  That little cafe, and the usual table I sit at, have come to be affectionately known by some of my college students and colleagues as "my office."

The reasons I write there are many and varied, but here's the shortlist:

1) Construction going on near my place and the environment during the day is quite cacaphonous.

2)   I see my students and fellow staff members on a daily basis.  They know where to find me if they need me.

3)  I sometimes hear things, snatches of conversation, etc., that sometime make their way into the play.

4) Coffee.  Keeps me going.

5) No power supply.  On a good day, I can get about 3 hours out of my laptop battery.  After three hours I should get up and take a break.  It keeps the blood from pooling in my bum.  But I know there is a time limit as to how long I can write.  It forces me to back up regularly, especially when the battery is getting low.

6)  Nerve center.  Since this little shop is in the heart of the Arts district, and I often see a lot of fellow theatre artists, it keeps me in the loop as to what's going on.

7) Interesting characters.  There are some interesting folks there who sometime may make it into a play: the American business man, complete with baseball cap, who comes there to pitch his ideas; the two Chinese guys who run the espresso stall who know what I want as soon as I approach the counter--one of them has the curious of being able to create quite beautiful shapes (hearts and leaves mostly) in the foam of milky espresso beverages, the old Chinese beggar who usually appears in the afternoon making a spectacle of his bum foot and asks me in a language I don't understand if I could give him $2.  (I want to tell him that I am an artist and am the wrong person to ask for money).  Maybe I should walk around making a spectacle of my bum scripts asking others for $2.    

I also almost always keep a little notepad in my back pocket.  Sometimes I get an idea or think of a great line and feel I have to get it down on paper.  Or I observe some very telling piece of human behaviour and want to record it.

Anyway, I thought it woud make an interesting thread, so please feel free to tell us where you write and why.

Dean