We May Not Fit These Images

I found out that all of us here at 4F,1H are pretty much of one mind when it comes to writing attire.
I think we can all agree that ‘comfortable’ is the operative word of the week.

The question I posed for this week was: What do you like to wear when writing and what is the most unusual thing you have worn while writing?

This may not have been the most exciting topic I suggested.

If you have been visiting the Hound and the other Foxes, you know that none of us seem to fit the image most people have of writers. Jeff doesn’t suggest he ever reminds anyone of these images:

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Jonathan Swift

or :

Robert Louis Stevenson

And none of we Foxes would maintain anyone’s ideas of women writers, such as:

 

Jane Austen

Mary Shelley

nor even this:

Meryl Streep as a Romance Writer in “She Devil”

I usually dress in slacks, (not jeans; I have never found them comfortable), to write. My tops are loose blouses in warm weather. I wear pull-over shirts in cool/cold weather, or sweaters, and often layers.

And normally, I have on my ballerina-type slippers, (with or without socks, depending on the temps).

Casual as that all is, I can’t feel ‘sloppy’ and be creative. My colors have to coordinate.

I wrote  when I worked during my lunch breaks in “service black & white” and an apron. I write recipes or descriptions for my other blog in aprons at home. I have typed away while dressed for Halloween, complete with bat diddly-boppers on my head, while waiting for trick-or-treaters. I have made a quick few additions that suddenly occurred to me while in my coat, waiting for The Husband. (Yes, sometimes it is the wives who have to do the waiting and the husbands who make a couple late).

I am not a person who can get up and hang around in their nightclothes. I can’t think of sitting down at the computer, (where I do most of my writing), in the morning if I am not dressed for the day.

When I was homeschooling my sons, a young reporter from New York was in this town on a Summer internship and asked to come in to do an article on us. Try as he might, he could not get us to say that the boys did their schoolwork in their pajamas. I didn’t think that my sons would do their best and brightest of they weren’t up and dressed. (Years later, the fellow was up for a Pulitzer. I wondered if he manipulated any testimony or stories. I hope he outgrew that sort of ‘journalism’.)

However, I have actually done what I consider some of my best work at night and in my nightgown.

My husband works second-shift, 3PM-11PM.He gets in anytime around 11:16 or shortly after. We go over the family news of the day, work of the day, world news of the day and often relax watching some show, (or something online), so I get ready to relax before he gets in ( I can also drop out to bed or doze off if I need to, since I get up much earlier than he does.)

When I am alone in the evenings, excited and on a roll, I slip in for a shower, get into something comfortable and type my heart out. I don’t feel like I have to watch the clock, or stop; The Husband understands when I need to finish a thought/scene/idea.

I have to admit that I like to look nice even at night and if I feel the need to be comfortable in the day, I certainly need to feel very comfortable at night. I have a number of types of over-robes and dusters, in various weights and fabrics, suitable for differing temperatures. Along with my ballerina slippers, (of which I have several pairs), I’m good to go.

I have no idea why it makes such a difference to me as to when I am in my nigh clothes as to how productive I feel. Maybe it’s the shower, maybe I feel untosled; I am not sure.

Oh, and sometimes, I wear a cat.

Do any of you still conjure up images of fancy-pants writers?