Manic Monday --- Writing Tips to Live By... Tip #1 Writing Space

So you fancy yourself a writer in training, you want to be a writer, or you just quit being a writer ten minutes ago?  If you fall into one of those categories, then hopefully my Monday tips will give you a little push towards getting to work on that project you've either been putting off or haven't found the time to finish.

For Tip #1 I'm going to share a little secret with you about writing. Whether you're one of those committed writers who can put in several hours a day at the computer, or like me, totally manic and write in fevered, spastic, and sporadic bursts, this tip can help.
Simply: You need a writing space. This space can be physical or mental or both. Essentially you need a place where all that happens there is writing, writing, and more writing. I'm lucky that my house is a little bombshelter on the side of a mountain, so I have a great physical environment to write in --- but still I also need some mental space, an escape of sorts from the noise of modern life.  I'm lucky that my folks have a homestead in the middle of nowhere with no running water or electricity (just a generator to charge the laptop) and this is the place I go, when I can afford it, to finish projects. In the midnight sun of summer I can write endlessly in endless daylight, or in the winter I can type beside the crackling woodstove with the aurora swirling above in the night sky.  I realize this isn't a place that most writers have, so to tell you that all you need is a place like I have would be ridiculous (and not at all simple). 
The truth about the cabin space for me is that when I am there I put myself in a mental space that demands from my brain a special focus and an expectation that I will complete the project at hand. So I don't need the remote cabin to accomplish this, so much as the determination to insist that the time I spend there will be productive.  
Essentially, I gear my brain to shift into a mode that tunes out distractions.  The solitude of the forest around helps, the silence of the Takotna River at first makes my ears ring as they adjust to a world without the hum of civilization. Then just the clicking of a keyboard might mingle with the raindrops on the metal roofing and I am all but completely immersed in the writing at hand.
Since you don't have the lonely cabin in the woods option, don't be discouraged. What you need to do is find a routine that puts you in that same space. Close your web browser, turn off your phone, and turn off the TV/RADIO/NOISE BOX, and get to work. Perhaps a fan for white noise or just the right music to set the atmosphere.  If the distractions are at a minimum then you'll have no choice but to focus. If home is a place that simply won't allow you to find that magic space where writing can happen, then seek it out. Get creative. Try the library. Try a park. Try a cave.  Try something.
Find the space that will inspire you to finish one of your projects.