Apparently I Enjoy Labeling My Furniture

I posted this picture last night on twitter:

The Essentials of Writing

I called it The Essentials of Writing (as my "clever" caption denotes). And, in the spirit of my nightstand, I'm going to label the heck out of this picture and tell you more details about my writing process than any of you probably care to know.

I know I've been posting about NaNoWriMo and writing in general a lot recently. And I would apologize to those of you who are not writers, but my content is almost always useless information anyway, so you kind of knew that when you signed up. Or, well, kept coming back. Which I thank you for, by the way. You guys are the best readers a girl could ask for and I'm totally grateful. I only sound like a jerk in my writing. Which is always. Oops. Er... Whatever. The only other post topic that I can think of is a really sad story and I'm not up for it today. So you get heavily labeled photos and bad writing advice instead. Deal?

So, without further ado or continued jerkiness on my part, here's the labeled picture:

The Essentials of Writing, now with excessive labels.

Let's just jump right in, shall we?

1. Night/darkness, when I do my best writing. Which is why most of you don't see my new posts until the next day.
2. Skullcandy Pipe and iPod Nano. Set to an instrumental playlist, including my lullaby by Josh Kelly ("23"). Not that he wrote is specifically for me or anything like that (I wish!). But you got that, right? Every once in a while, I set it to a different style to influence my mood and put me in a character's headspace, especially when I needed to access my ANGER or my DEVASTATION buttons.
3. Candles. Smelly, flaming ambiance setters. This particular one is by Chesapeake Bay Candles and is "Jasmine Lily" flavored. Or scented. Whatever. I'm also burn their "Tropical Escape" jar candle. And another (tiny) jar candle by someone else (the label fell off) called "Garden Rain." All at the same time. This is so detailed in case would like your home to smell the exact same variety of what-the-crap-is-this? as mine does.
4. Soft light from a (cheap, Target variety) torchiere lamp. Also an ambiance setter.  I have two on either end of the couch and I put them on their lowest setting and turn out all the other lights. Except the candles. Of course.
5. Down (probably fake down) throw blanket that is soft and warm, but never long enough to cover all of me. So I put it on my lap and wear a sweater. Because writing makes my toes cold. Okay, life makes my toes cold. My future husband is in for a real treat in the middle of the night; they're like flesh-covered ice cubes.
6. The ever present, all magical PURPLE COUCH. I really don't need to say more than that, right?
7. Old pillows too flat and lumpy to be on my bed anymore, covered in nice silver pillowcases and repurposed as throw pillows. For the back support, not for napping. Rarely for napping. Okay, sometimes for napping.
8. The Laptop of Sketchy Internet Connection and Impossible to Find Apostrophe Key. I swear, all week, I've been writing crap like "don;t" "won;t" "it;s" and "Fischer;s." It's like someone MOVED it on me! Or my right pinky is suddenly deformed... Anyway, as I'm sure you're all aware, this is where all the Writing Magic happens. And by magic, I mean drivel.
9. Handy-dandy laptop desk with adjustable/foldable legs and mouse-pad-area-thingy. Mainly used when sitting upright (okay, mostly playing Sims 3), not lounging. Which is how I usually write. Still incredibly helpful, though.
10. Orange 4G USB drive. I would make some comment about using this to back up my work like a responsible adult writer. But mostly, I just use this to move old, bad writing from my old, bad computer and put it next to my newer, less-bad writing on my newer, less-bad laptop.
11. Beautiful mahogany side-table Foldable TV tray useful for holding beverages. Or laundry. Or a cat.
12. Teapot. This teapot was left to me by my Nana, who was brilliant and classy and loving and witty and slightly crazy (in the best, most creative way possible) and always wished I would grow up to be a lawyer. Who recently passed away and is the subject of that sad post I'm not willing to write right now. Who was also the leader of our tea party shenanigans and who, I hope, would love that I was writing a novel about a brilliant and classy and loving and witty and slightly crazy woman named Colbie. This teapot adds immeasurable inspiration to my writing, er, nook? cubby? couch? Writing SPACE: Inspired by Teapot, coming to a room near you...
13. Sweet 'N Low packets. For the tea. They'll probably kill me some day, but so will diabetes if I don;t get my sugar intake under control. (I'm totally leaving that "don;t" typo, just to show you I wasn't kidding in number 8)
14. My handy new ceramic mug with a silicon lid, which looks like an average to-go cup, but is washable and reusable and makes me happy. I cannot really explain why. But I love it. So it goes writing with me.
15. My handy insulated cold cup, when the tea is too warm or isn't quenching actual thirst. I love this thing so much that I bought two. This one has green and yellow polka-dots. The other one has red polka-dots. They were $4 each. Did I mention I love them?
16. Spot where my missing bottle of wine and polka-dot wine glass should be. But the wine glasses have not arrived from Pampered Chef yet, even though my consultant friend said it would only take four days and it's been a week and a half. Or two? I'm not sure. Begin unemployed means I don;t (SEE?!) know what day it is. Whatever the case, I did not have wine anyway. It made me sad. But without wine to be had and only normal, non-polka-dotty wine glasses to drink it out of, I was stuck. So, imagine there was wine. I know I did.

So that's where I write. What about you guys? If you're a blogger, what do you need to have around you to get it all done. What about you novelists? And for those of you who don't write, tell me about your hobbies and the stuff you need to get them done. I like hearing about you guys even more than I like writing inane trivia about myself.