Where Do You Write?

Where do you do your writing? It's a question most writers ask of one another. We're all hoping to hear the magic answer that will improve our own writing and make our dreams of fame and wealth come true. You laugh, but I guarantee if Stephen King said he never wrote anywhere but in the bathtub, legions of wanna-be published writers would figure, what the hell, pour in some Mr. Bubble and give it a shot.

As for me, I'm experimenting with writing spaces. I've all but given up trying to do creative writing at my desk. I can brainstorm there, and I can edit, but when I sit there I think "work" and all creative juices fling themselves out the window to go splat on the ground below.

For the moment, I'm cozily ensconced in our downstairs bedroom. I've set up a card table in the corner, although most mornings I prop myself up with a pillow and stretch out on the bed, laptop on my thighs. The idea with the card table was to "test" the space. If I liked it, then we'd look into prettying it up into an office.

The thing is, the space is working so well, I'm afraid to fool with it. I think I feel free to write here because the space is not fixed up. The futon is folded against the wall, waiting to find a home. Plastic bins of magazines I collect for my workshops are shoved in a corner. A folding chair is pulled up to the laminate card table and stacks of projects are piled unceremoniously on the floor. I brought a CD player in and it sits on the floor next to the rocking chair, CD's stacked next to it.

In short, the room is far away from the normal sticky tab order of my daily life. And I'm worried if I bring in a "real" desk and shelving, the space will just turn into another "office" where I can't work. So while it looks crummy, I'm lovin' the "things just stay where they fall" lifestyle.

Reinforcing my instinct to not fool with the room is this story, shared by a friend in my writer's group. He and his wife used to live in a small apartment. He wrote most of his first novel late at night, in a tiny room with a desk shoved in the corner. Then they moved to a new, larger home. He has a good sized office, but found he wasn't writing a word. So last week we recreated his old office. He painted the room the same dingy color of the old space, brought back his old desk,  old chair, and shoved them both in a corner. Said he's been writing up a storm ever since.

Space writing mojo... honor it.