Working Conditions

I have read that artists can write anywhere; J.K wrote in coffee shops, others on subway trains and a few lucky ones are fortunate enough to have a study to themselves dedicated to the task of writing.
I can not.
An aspiring writer myself, I am struggling to find a place to park bum and let the melting pot of my creativity sit and eventually flow into coherent ideas and themes necessary for story writing.

I find coffee shops too noisy. As much as I enjoy the occasional French Vanilla Cappuccino, the overwhelming scent of caffeine in a coffee shop threatens to dissolve my resolve to avoid becoming addicted to coffee.

I have enjoyed riding subway trains for as long as I can remember. I enjoy the ride so much, I have been known to wake up several stations after my intended stop. Subway trains are great if I need to catch up on an hours' sleep, but they would be inefficient if I wanted to complete some writing. Unfortunately if I were to try to write on the subway I would probably wake up (several stops late) to find my journal or laptop computer missing.

An office or study would be ideal for me. Ideally a room with a lot of wall space to cover with inspirational images, character sketches, maps and more. I would need bookshelves reference texts and shelves for my journals and drafts. A desk would be nice too, with a cushioned chair that could roll around the room and spin on a dime.

Alas, I do not have a study at my disposal or an extra room to convert into a study. At the moment I have two choices;

First- My bedroom; a modestly small room. When I say small I mean- I have seen bathrooms (not en suites) larger than my bedroom- small. I have a cubby hole in the wall that can barely be classified as a closet, and a filing (sp?) cabinet in the middle of my room. As for inspiration, between the 20 year old floral wallpaper and posters of the latest teen sensations covering the walls, I have no room for that either.

My second choice in writing locations is my living room. In many respects this room is ideal;
-steps away from the kitchen and washroom
-lots of natural lighting
-lots of floor space for my inspirational pieces and my reference books
-lots of leg room
-diverse seating implements
-CD player

Like every good thing the living room also comes with disadvantages;
-it is a communal space- ie I have to clean it up
-it is a communal space- ie I often have visitors come in unannounced to distract me
-my two cats think I am here entertain them and do everything they can (including deleting excerpts of my stories, and ordering lamps from ebay) to keep me from being productive
-my fish tank is just out of arms reach, and when I ignore the kitten long enough she jumps up and torments the fish until I get up and forcefully remove her

As I look at my options I wonder how all the great writers before me managed it. How did they work tirelessly and diligently through the distractions and interruptions in each of their own personal writing havens?
I realize now I must be a true writer.
I have been sitting in the same position- without moving- in my living room, writing for the past 5 hours. In the grand view of writing, 5 hours is not a lot of time. It is a significant amount of time however, not to move.

One day I will join to ranks of published authors. Perhaps after I have published a few books, purchased a house of my own and built myself a study dedicated to my craft I will be asked where I began writing. When I am asked, I will tell them of nights like tonight when I lounged on my parents' living room couch, draped in my leopard print snuggie, with a cat pinning down each of my hands as I wrote tirelessly into the early hours of the morning, while the sound of my slumbering family's snores echoed down the staircase to me.

-B

G-6,619
TToA-51,765
TDotRQ-37,276