I find I do my best fiction writing away from the computer, at a table or desk with a notepad. Editing and corrections are fine once I've got the ideas and the nuts and bolts down on paper away from distractions.

Non-fiction writing I just do in Word. Less thought and creativity involved. Not to say that I don't love my interviews and such, as they pay the bills - but it's not comics.

I like to write at coffee shops on a legal pad. Get me out of the house, away from other stuff I could be doing.

Most of the time it's at the computer. My first drafts seem to go faster, yet turn out more polished, if I'm typing them. Every so often an idea will hit and I'll write out a story longhand at Big Boy.

I don't write, but I'd like to. I think I enjoy IMWAN because I like to write.

Mostly I "write" in my head while out walking, especially in the morning. I don't sit down and start typing it out on the word processor until I've got characters, plots, and dialog largely mapped out.

I think JK Rowland writes on a legal pad in a coffee shop.

That's what she says on her web site. She must have put in a LOT of time in coffee shops!

Poser.

Millionaire poser.

I do lots and lots of thinking. Then I sit down in front of the computer and bang away. Comics I write as I draw them, generally, which is why I like hand lettering so much better than computer. Sometimes I draw pages without dialogue, and sometimes I dialogue pages with barely even stick figures....depends on what is working on any particular day.

I still do a lot of writing by hand, on notepads or whatever else is nearby, wherever I happen to be. I've been known to take a solo lunch, sit in a diner and write. That sort of thing. I write as it comes, then play with the text when I begin to type it out in digital form. I consider the type-written version a 1.5 draft, sort of.

Much as I like the computer, nothing beats writing by hand. It just feels right.

I've written a few short stories while out doing something else. Sitting in on a local council meeting, for instance, and scribbling stuff out during lulls in the action. (Sisko, the one you read, the wife story, was written that way.)

When I get on the computer to write, I have to get away from my desk. I usually sit with the laptop at the kitchen table, or out on the deck. I almost always write with music. Distractions don't bother me because they aren't; I get locked in. But getting away from that desk is key, which is why being without a laptop is all but crippling.

Well, I don't write on the laptop anymore. It had been pretty beat up already, unable to retain a user profile, slow to boot, and other problems ... but it kept cugging along and got the job done.

Not anymore. We had a 30-second power outage on Sunday while I was in the middle of writing. When the power came back on, the laptop was screwed. I can no longer save documents. The option is there, but trying to use it does nothing.

This sucks pretty bad. Timing is awful, too.

I've been writing this year, working on a fiction piece that is at first draft stage. I ended doing the first draft on a tablet by hand. I sit in my chair in the den, starting at 9:00 usually, and write. The handwriting works better for first draft because it helps me keep moving, not back up and insert edits.

I often do a first draft longhand and then transcribe onto the laptop. Mostly I write at work between customers.

Lately I find that I prefer typing directly into the laptop in a stream of consciousness thing. I go back and clean it up in chunks before moving on to the next chunk. I do wish I were a better typist.