The fall semester is underway here in Columbia, but we know students aren’t the only ones looking for the perfect writing spot. If you’re like Maya Angelou, you post up in a nearby hotel and drink sherry while you write. Or you keep the sherry and write lying down, like Truman Capote. Maybe you write lying down, but toss the sherry, like Mark Twain. Either way, we’re curious: where do you go to work on your writing? @ us your favorite pic of your writing space and use the hashtag #tmrwritingspaces. In the meantime, check out where our staff goes to do their best work and what gets them through (spoiler alert: no one mentions sherry).

Where do you write?

“I usually write in my office, and there are a TON of books on my desk. I’m working on a bunch of essays and my reference books stay with me, like a literary safety blanket.”

— poetry editor Jennifer McCauley

“Since my wife and I ‘have a young son’ who ‘needs his own room’ so he can ‘sleep at night’ and ‘develop some autonomy,’ my writing space has endured a forced migration to the living room.”

— managing editor Marc McKee

“I am what you might call ‘Pavlov’s writer.’ For each completed paragraph, I reward myself with a cluster of gummy bears (all the same color). After about five hours of steady sugar consumption, I go to the gym and pay in sweat for my sins.”

— marketing director Kris Somerville

“Full disclosure: this is an aspirational space rather than a working one. My husband and I just purchased a home with a sunroom so I have set up a desk here. I hope to spend time this winter doing the writing that I always say I’m going to do. And I hope to raise the plants that up to now I have always killed.”

— web director Christina Bramon (writing space is pictured above)

“I’ve never had a writing ritual or a specific place to write. I used to write in my mind while walking, and I still do that sometimes, because language is intellectual motion.”

For more responses from our staff (and pictures of their spaces!), click the links at the top of the page to follow us on your favorite social media platforms. Don’t forget to show us your own favorite spaces with the tag #tmrwritingspaces so we can follow along!