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| Stephen King's writing space |
Sue found a Dave Eggers column in The Washington Post in which he discusses 'the writing life.' He says he writes "in a shed in my backyard. I have a sheet draped over the shed's window because without it the morning sun would blast through and blind me. So I'm looking at a gray sheet, which is nailed to the wall in two places and sags in the middle like a big, gray smile. And the sheet is filthy. And the shed is filthy. If I left this place unoccupied for a week, it would become home to woodland animals. They probably would clean it up first."
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| Mark Twain's study |
For example, we know that Buffy writes in a room decorated with frilly, fluffy pink things and a pink-rhinestone encrusted laptop.
So what does your writing room -- the real one, and the one you'd create for yourself if you could -- look like? Leave your answers in the comments.
My writing room is like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. It's whatever room has a surface free of clutter on which I can set my laptop. Often, it's the kitchen -- which doesn't work too well because then instead of writing my thoughts drift to cookies or Chex Mix. Other times, it's the living room, which also doesn't work too well because the Living room is also where the TV is -- which is highly distracting, what with re-runs of "Law and Order" and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." This probably explains why I don't get much writing done. I actually had my ideal writing room when I lived up on a farm in Lewisberry. I had a giant antique table set in front of two big windows which overlooked two big pastures, some woods and a small enclosure where two cows lived. It was like staring at a painting. It was bright and cozy. If I'd lived there a few more years, I probably could've written at least three more pages in that novel I'm working on.
ReplyDeleteReal room: I put a laptop on a metal-and-pressed-wood computer stand in a corner of the unfinished family room. I sit in an old office chair whose arms would break if you tried to use them to push yourself to your feet. The room is half underground, so the window in front of me is at ground level, and gives a view of the lawn and the bottoms of a pin oak and a white pine. To my right is a 40-year-old end table, a remnant of the home I grew up in; to my left, a 20-year-old light-blue-upholstered loveseat that was part of the first suite of living-room furniture my wife and I bought. At my best, I've found myself staring at the blueboarded walls to find a phrase or a word or a scene, until the walls dissolve and I'm just in the story.
ReplyDeleteIdeal room: In a log-cabin home, ground floor, huge window looking out on woods or a meadow, and a fireplace. If I could write with a fire talking to me in the background, I might not write that much better, but it would be damn cool.
Lately, it's the dining room/kitchen table, between bites of dinner, or while I'm trying not to nod off later at night. But I have the same problem as Sue with that arrangement.
ReplyDeleteOne thing both Scott and Sue neglected to address is that in our modern-day writing rooms, we write on computers, which have this great-yet-horrible-for-procrastinators-and-the-easily-distracted thing called THE INTERNET, which also contains other distracting elements, such as Facebook and Twitter.
While sitting by a fireplace and admiring nature sound like lovely settings for writing, I get more inspired places where I can people watch, like in the mall or on the boardwalk or on the metro (when I was in DC). It's fun to imagine what the lives of all those strangers are like and all the things we don't know about each of them.
Oh, and I can totally see Buffy writing on her pink rhinestone-encrusted computer! :)
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