What is your must-have for writing?

[Courtney]

What is part of your process for writing? What do you need to have in order to feel like you're getting something done? What will throw off your game?

Me, I need coffee. I tend to lurk in coffee shops swilling a couple cups while listening to instrumentals from musical scores. Right now I've been listening the soundtrack from Alice: the Madness Returns since it fits my novel.

Otherwise, I have trouble writing when there are others in the room. Strangely, coffee shops don't bug me so much.

[Harvey]

I need privacy, relative silence (no TV!), coffee if it's early in the day, sour mash bourbon if it's late in the day, and some ideas that excite me all the way to the marrow of my bones. Unfortunately ideas aren't quite as easy to come by as coffee.

[cc]

I need to be in a weird headspace. My character is really effed-up and desperate and I've noticed that I write her best when I'm not in a happy mood.

[Lisa]

Earl Grey tea and a cat or two in the room. When I write poetry all I need is a scrap of paper and a pen or pencil, for prose I go straight to my laptop. If the TV is on quietly in the background I don't mind because I can easily ignore it, but silence helps at difficult points.