Inga M. Beck

As a writer, I love the sounds of writing. I love the clickity-clack of a keyboard. The older the keyboard the better. I love hearing the sound of pencil on paper, a marker on a whiteboard or chalk on a blackboard. Even if the chalk or marker makes a squeaky noise. It’s doesn’t matter, it only gives me a nostalgic shiver, memories of lessons learnt in life. It is the sound of writing, learning and living, and I love it. It’s a sign of a thinking being. It’s the sound of someone making new discoveries or reclaiming old ones.

That however is not the only thing that I mean when I talk about the sounds of writing. There are only certain atmospheres where I can really get into the spirit of writing, spirit of creating. The sound I have right now is the sound of wind and birds searching for food in the white world of snow. It is the sound of isolation and peace. (And of course it is, I haven’t done anything but eat, sleep, read, watch TV and knit for the last two weeks. And the reading has been an awfully small part of it. That’s Christmas vacation in a tiny village in Iceland for ya) This peaceful life gives me a peaceful mind… for the most part. Sometimes the peace and quiet can drive me mad. I often find it hard to focus on being creative in my own home, with dirty dishes in the sink, dog hair on the floors, laundry waiting to be done, dust waiting to be wiped and a dog craving attention.

I recently discovered a great thing. As with so many other great things, this is a great thing of the internet. It is a web-page called coffitivity.com. The greatness of this page lies in the fact that I love sitting at coffee-shops and writing. I love the noises around it, the smell of coffee, having some chocolate biscuits with some great coffee and the entire experience. I however am not exactly the richest person around and everything related to coffee-shops or dining and such in Iceland is extremely expensive. So with he aid of this wonderfully simple web-page I have been able to bring the coffee-shop bustle into my own home. I have decent coffee making skills so that is easy to provide, and making some cookies is simple enough too. So there I have it all, at my fingertips. The noise that induces writing and in turn gives me the sound of writing which makes me want to write even more. A delicious cycle of creativity surging through my veins, into my fingers and onto the page. Long live the internet!