Where Do You Write?

With the advent of the laptop, and now the tablet the concept of writing space has changed to virtually anywhere, anytime. When I think of writing space, I have this image of my head of a well-organized desk facing a beautiful landscape outside. Sometimes, it’s facing the beach, sometimes its facing miles and miles of mountains—a girl can dream, right? My reality of course is far from this. My desk is not clutter free (far from it) but I do try to get organized. Instead of a beach, I face the wall.

I do have several essentials with my writing space: comfortable chair and a sturdy desk. The rest is gravy.

The Pretties. Many of the items in my writing space were acquired through the years so my investment has been spread out. I have few “pretties” in my writing space. Because I don’t have a lot of room, most of the stuff I have I consider essential. I do have a reading chair which is actually a hand me down from a friend and it’s not a chair, rather it’s a glider. I rocked my triplet boys in this chair so not only has it seen a lot of use, it also holds a lot of memories (mostly sleepless, zombie-like nights nursing three preemies). I have a corkboard that has some pictures of my kids but mostly some information that for the life of me I could not remember (10,000 passwords anyone? Or what’s today’s date?). The corkboard is just something I whipped up together one particular manic period when I wanted to start a project. It’s an old frame I painted and added some old fashioned corkboard. Then, there’s music–another “nice” thing to have. I prefer to use my old Bose ipod docking system as it allows me to hear the kids (mostly, so I know whether they have flooded the house or not). Of course, you can always get a decent set of earphones and just plug them in your computer.

 

The Practicalities. My desk is from Ikea (I bought one of their studier ones because I knew I would get a lot of use out of it), while the hideously purple desk chair was a freebie from someone who was getting rid of it. I almost had an apoplectic attack when my husband took this ugly thing home convinced I was going to like it. But once I’ve calmed down long enough to try it, I had to agree he was right—it’s the most comfortable desk chair I’ve had, hideous color or not. Next to these two essentials, good equipment is key. After buying a $5 adapter, I made my husband’s old monitor work so I can work with dual monitors. It was literally sitting upside down in the garage covered in dust when I salvaged this monitor. I cannot imagine writing without it. It saves me time from toggling form one app to another. Another item I invested on is a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. By having all these items, I can work with good ergonomics and be more productive (once I drag myself off from Pinterest and Facebook—these two are evil time wasters and I have no self control!)

A printer is not really essential to writing but its one of those things that is “nice” to have. I have a printer that is not technically wireless but with a little know-how I managed to have some wireless capabilities. I joined the printer to our home network using a USB, and now I can print from virtually anywhere in the house. My laptop is not tethered to the printer anymore—yay!

 

Speaking of tethered, wireless capability has changed the way we write in the last five years or so. Once in awhile I get the need to get out of this small space I’ve carved out in our house run-over by toys and boys, and I head to my favorite local coffeehouse. I am lucky as this coffeehouse is literally next door (they share walls!!!) to the local library AND the owner is a pasty chef—win-win in my world. She makes the best white chocolate-cranberry scones. Anyway, I digress. The point is the writing space can be anything, anywhere—coffee house, your house, and your in-laws’ house (not too long, I hope). I’ve also written inside a bathtub in a hotel room—yes, IN a bathtub, as an attempt to drown out the noise of four boys. So it really does not matter where you write as long as you write. Now, stop reading and write!