i love this question… it’s bizarrely rare that i get the chance to talk about my own writing habits, so this is lifting me above the clouds hehe

but first off thank you for your incredibly kind words !! i… feel like anything i say pales in comparison to the heartfelt vulnerability not just of what you said but how you said it—but thank you, all the same. truly. you’ve intrigued me with what discipline you meant by the “hardest of hard sciences” and for what it’s worth, though proclus diadochus was talking about math in this particular quote, i think it applies to any science that adheres to the hidden poetry and orderly chaos of the universe:

This therefore is Mathematics: She reminds you of the invisible forms of the soul; She gives life to her own discoveries; She awakens the mind and purifies the intellect; She brings light to our intrinsic ideas; She abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth…

so! please don’t think working in the hard sciences precludes you from the very things that makes language and storytelling beautiful. i might have dyscalculia, but even i know that good writing is in the end very good, very beautiful, very loving mathematics.

to answer your question at last! i’m quite lucky in that when it comes to writing, i can lock in within most environments. if nothing else, writing-wise, i’m pretty proud of my stamina and my ability to effectively ~switch on whenever and wherever i need to. not as a bragging point, more a logistical benefit !! i’ve written on my phone in a moving bus, on a tissue napkin, on my wrist, on literal tree bark… i get more frustrated than anything when i’m stuck with a medium that can’t keep up with how fast the words are going in my mind, bc very often once they go, they’re gone for good—my next attempt at the same sentence will be wildly different. so the first thing is that i do prefer a tactile keyboard that i’ve finetuned to my typing habits.

in terms of where i am, i’m usually not picky. anything except my bed, maybe, bc i am very easily tempted by sleep, but i’ve written many things in bed bc i woke up and just started writing and didn’t get out until i was done. any temperature is okay, and a fic of mine called first love, late spring ironically came into fruition bc it was excessively cold in the room when i was writing its first proper chapter. i might struggle at first past a certain acceptable level of chatter, but very often, i’m immoveable once i properly start. i will not move, will not eat, will not drink, will likely not even hear you. i’ve gone on like this for up to 11 hours.

but oh! 😯 i have to be able to comfortably cross my legs. that’s my one non-negotiable. i have given up an office desk for the common space couch purely bc i could not cross my legs and therefore could not write in the chair they gave me.

in the interest of superficiality, though, my most recent preference for academic and professional writing has been a particular coffee shop, but only bc it’s right across from my fav secondhand bookstore in the city and down the street, coincidentally, from one of my fav stationery shops and my fav ramen place. it’s like a three-pronged reward whenever i finish a paper (ˊᗜˋ)