1. All of the pens! I have all different colors for writing, editing, and lying to myself about doing work when I really know I am going to do word searches or logic puzzles.

2. All my prep pages and notebooks (outline, character sketch, random scenes, etc.) I tend to write random scenes and have stories build from that. I have notebooks full of them, random scrap paper covered, and one liners written on a whiteboard. All of these come in handy to know where I am fitting things in. Some of these things were developed in class and I just kept going with them for furthering the projects. Sometimes it is tedious, but worth it.

3. Post-it notepad or minis. I stick these everywhere. Sometimes I don’t remember why, but they are there for one reason or another.

4. iPad. I love having my iPad on hand for extra research purposes. I do not always know what I will need, but sometimes I just want to do a quick search without shutting out of the story.

5. Music speaker. Music is an awesome motivator. I try to always have something in the background.

6. Writing prompt journal for inspirational breaks, or to help me just take a break from overthinking with my story. Every now and then I need to hit restart on my creative spark, and these things are fantastic for that!

7. Candles. They help me relax. Simple.

8. Snacks. I mean… who wants to get up for snacks and pull themselves out of the creative zone?

9. My writer’s tower. I have this thing filled with writing resource books, prompt books, research notes, any writing tool I could think of, and actual textbooks that I have found beneficial. It has been a saving grace!

10. Space to type. I have talked recently about how my life is organized chaos. This is very true about my writing space. Looks horrendous… works for me. I have enough space to type and be comfortable with it. That’s all I need. Everything else cam work around that space.

-AB