Pen or Keyboard? - A Necessities of (writing) Life post

Like most people these days, I'm surgically attatched to my laptop - or so it seems some days. I have lots of word processing stuff - Scrivener (cool), Pages (classic) and Texteditor (boring) to name but a few, and I've been known to use all of them when the mood strikes me.

Only...

When I'm REALLY in a writing mood, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats pen and paper. The feel of ink flowing across the page, the physical act of turning a page when you've filled it with WORDS, the slight crampy feeling in my hand when I've written page upon page upon page... using a laptop just can't relate.

It's also really hard to doodle at the edge of a computer screen or keyboard.

I'm at a stage of I'm-so-stuck-yness right now that I'm considering putting away my laptop altogether (for writing, that is, God knows what I'd do without email, twitter, blog, tumblr, facebook.....I'm addicted, right? *sigh*), and get out a good old notebook and pen. Preferably a fountain pen, they just feel so much better when flowing across the page.

In fact, they're the only implement that really does flow - I tend to push to hard with pencils and normal ballpoint pens and that either makes these letter-shaped dents on all pages beneath the one I'm using or it gives me horrid cramps in my hand (I guess I'm getting old). I also managed to dislocate my little finger twice yesterday whilst writing *shudder*, but then I'm weird that way.

How does the writing process work for you? Do you feel more creative on a keyboard or when using pen and paper? Does your Muse have a preference either way?

TEA or COFFEE? - A Necessities of (writing) Life post

Hello, my name is Tessa, and I'm addicted to coffee. 

I drink tea with breakfast for the most part, but after that, it's coffee, coffee, coffee. Waaaay too much of it, probably. I tried switching to green tea (actually I try that about once a month) but this is usually crowned with spectacular failure and a rather grumpy sort of day on my part. 

I do grumpy very well, if I do say so. In fact, I've been told my employees are scared of me.... (insert evil grin right here, please). Now now, I'm not the evil gremlin sort of boss...(more of a dark sidhe if anything, pretty please), it's just that I work in a mostly male-dominated sort of domain and if I don't put my foot down people have a tendency to walk all over me. I can play the dumb blond girlie if I need to, I just prefer  not having to do that. 

So, back to the coffee. The only time I can reasonably do without is in summer, when cold lemonade (preferably with a touch of hierbabuena) and Pepsi Max (TM) or Coke Zero (TM) prevail. Or iced soya chai from Starbucks (TM) (see me being proper with trademarks!! I've had my coffee today, you see...)(I'm vaguely lactose intolerant, in case you were wondering). 

Other than during hot weather, I am not to be held accountable for my actions before I've had at least two cups of tea (proper english tea with milk) or a cup of coffee. 

The need to be caffeinated increases exponentially when I'm writing. Apparently, my Muse is addicted to the stuff, too. He tends to sulk in a dank dark corner of my mind until I give in and dunk him in a nice cappuccino like a home-made cantucci biscuit (yep I make those myself and they're good, thank you very much). 

What about you? What beverage is absolutely essential to your survival? What's your Muse's favourite drink?