This is an ongoing series aimed at being more productive.

Writing is simple: you sit in a chair and put one word down and then another word and so on. Writing well is a different thing altogether and one shouldn’t confuse the two. So instead of learning how to write well (which comes naturally from practice and study) I think the writer is best to get words on the page and finish what he starts. With this attitude the most important question isn’t: How do I write? but rather How do I sit in a chair?

LOCATION EXPIRY

Almost all locations start off full of inspiration and promise but quickly degenerate into something stale and lifeless. After some work, inspiration turns to anxiety, work turns to distraction, and eventually, the writer, the artist, gives up—blaming himself and his lack of talent and discipline. But it is not his fault. The location has simply expired and any further effort to do work in there is useless. No matter how much the writer tries to gnash his fists against the keyboard he cannot write in a stale location or squeeze orange juice from from vitamin c tablets.

But luckily, there are a few strategies available to the writer which will arm him against location expiry. A comfortable chair, for example. Music, if that is to your taste, or silence if one prefers that. A particular ambience created by candlelight, or moonlight, or firelight can also prolong a location’s expiry, but unfortunately these strategies cannot do so indefinitely and let’s face facts: locations expire. The best defence is to change locations whenever they start to mould at the crust.

Masters of this art can alter their locations without ever leaving their apartments. A master at location displacement can move from room to room, from chair to chair, from kitchen to shower, and never get caught in the trappings of a single arena. Some can even create the illusion of a new location by switching hats, or glasses, disguising themselves and the location as if they were the same. However, this takes many years of practise, and the writer is best served by getting out of the house, opening the window, going for a walk, and varying his locations before they rot.