I read on Facebook, Twitter and every other online site how a lot of authors go places to write. They write in coffee shops, at libraries, in the park and a bunch of other venues. Some authors even go away around deadline time and stay in a hotel or something similar to find peace and quiet. Man, I’ve tried to write outside the house. I really have. I like the idea of having a place to go to write, at least in theory, but my brain seems to misfire when I try to write outside of my house.
Our house has an office. When we moved in five years ago I just assumed I’d do all my writing in there. Then it happened, and by “it” I mean the odyssey to find the perfect desk. Good grief. If you ever wondered how long it takes for two adults to do something as simple as pick out the right piece of furniture, the answer is years. Move it here. Put it there. That’s the wrong size. That desk doesn’t fit. It was exhausting. We rotated through three desks and four office set-ups before we found a solution we both liked. This one has lasted more than a year, which is a record in our house. Here’s the pre-computer, pre-piles of stuff version of the desk and its placement (it’s way more cluttered now):
Great desk. Quiet room. Window above the keyboard, which is perfect for staring outside, otherwise known as “thinking about the book” when I describe it to my hubby.
Before we found the right desk and right layout, most days I worked from my couch with a laptop on my, well, lap. I still work there a lot of the time because we have one of those coffee table ottomans that is the right height for propping up my feet. And since I live in a place with near-perfect year-round weather, I also work outside. Here is a view of my side deck:
Basically, I can write anywhere at my house. Some days I fight myself and find a million other household things to do instead, but I try not to let the actual place I’m sitting be an excuse not to write so long as I’m at home. If I’m there, work is not optional…though sometimes it is tempting. After all, the television is right there. Just saying.
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I love the window above the desk, but I can so see myself on the deck.
I have to get more patio furniture this summer and get myself a set up such as this. I know it will be a better writing venue. By then my first novel “stella’s Plea” (undorgoing revisions NOW) should be finished AND published, and I will have started book number two.
Thanks for sharing, HelenKay.
Renee-Ann (aka Rae Ernst)
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I go places to write! My dining room table and my couch! lol! Love your patio, maybe I need to get outside and start working on mine!
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I have a home office, too, but tend to write anywhere else in the house except that office. Out of the house I get too caught up in people watching to focus, although I admire those who can work in places like coffee houses, etc.
Love your deck. Maybe I’ll think about taking the laptop out with me on mine this summer. There’s that fresh air angle, after all.
Pam
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I think necessity is the mother of invention.
I doubt I would’ve become a mobile writer if I hadn’t started writing when I had a day job and three kids in junior high. This meant if I only wrote when at home, I would never have gotten any writing done. Instead, I wrote on the bus to and from work and at my lunch hour, as well as during football, volleyball, cheerleading practices and in my car during Girl Scout meetings. In other words, I wrote on the go or not at all!
And honestly, even now, sometimes it’s too noisy at home in a neighborhood where a group of kids directly behind my backyard is outside playing every day. Loudly! And my other backyard neighbor is obsessed with his yard and mowing or blowing leaves or doing something every day. And the neighbor a few doors down has a garage band. The only place I go these days is my local soccer park which is acres of cleared fields with a huge picnic area beneath oak trees. It feeds my writer’s soul!
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The soccer field sounds nice too. a beautiful scenery always feeds the soul but when one lives downtown, it’s sometimes hard to find.
Our neighbourhood is farily quiet even though there are 3 apartment buildings next to each other behind our house. So i could do a fair amount of writing on the back deck but the scenery (apt buildings) may not feed me as much.