Writing Space...Make it yours

Not everyone has a desk and writing room or a place specified to finish the book. But...let's think outside the box on how you might do this as everyone's situation is different.

For me when I first started writing my kids were elementary age and busy and required my attention a lot more than now with them being teens. But I have been known to have my laptop at the skating rink, Chuck E Cheese, the soccer field, practices, music lessons and many other happenings. Have laptop. Will travel. 

Writing anywhere has worked fine for me but others cannot write unless they have their full set up. Desk, low lights, music, candles and so on. I get it. So ya gotta plan for how it will work best for you. 

I now like moving around my house. My bed. My desk. The couch so it appears I am watching the movie the family wants me to watch. I have written in the kitchen right off the laundry room while I get the dishwasher and 4 loads of clothes done. Set that dryer for an hour. It works as a great timer! 

We live in a ranch home on a full basement, part of which is built in. But I have never liked writing downstairs and at one point my Mother in Law had those rooms. So it was then that I realized I wanted my own writing space. Not the bedroom...that is a shared room. Not the living room that is a family room. And everything else was taken. All except the dining room, full of Fiesta dishes and a table and 6 chairs and a China cabinent. And all it was good for was holding everyone's school backpacks and jackets and a big pile of whatever....the junk room. It stayed full of stuff and the only time we ever used it was on Christmas day...rarely. 

So... never leave an author to contemplate how things could work different. My husband went out of town and when he returned. His China had been packed away. The Fiesta was back in the kitchen. The table had been shrunk down and shoved to one side of the room with only 4 chairs. And there was new paint on the walls.  A pale blue which is the writing color. A new desk adorned the room and cowboy fixtures and horses adorned the walls. And in a weekend I made it my own. And I didn't tell my husband who saw it when he got home. I didn't explain much but that no other space in the house was just mine. So now it is all my very own. It took a while for everyone to keep their junk pile of out it but now it only gets junked up by me.

I won't say I sit and write in that room for hours but it is nice when I sit there and edit and plan for books. I have soft string lights and a salt lamp. I especially like evenings and weekends there to think. But what I have found is even with a place to write you have to train yourself to get the writing done while there. I have moved around so much with my writing it has taken a while for me to accomplish writing at a desk...because I never had one. I enjoy my desk more and more but I can still write anywhere. 

But the lights help and being encircled by my horses and cowboys and writing things helps. 

Think about a place in you home that would work. Maybe a corner of one room or maybe a desk added to a room. My desk isn't very cluttered. I don't work well with things all piled up...so I do my bills and other paperwork at the dining room table in the corner or in the bedroom. That desk is mine just to write. Oh and I have a nice thick seat cushion so sitting for one hour at a time works. 

Think about the place. The lighting. A window is nice in my writing room. What color makes you feel good and be creative. I chose the pale blue. It's comfort. What kind of chair? What kind of desk or table? What things do you need around you to be able to write?

On weekends I sometimes get up to write just so I have quiet. I keep a blanket that matches the room in there...I can't write if I am cold but I do keep the house on 68 because I do not like to be hot. 

Maybe you need to create your space prior to starting the story. Maybe working on it as you finish this book will be what you can do for breaks.

Find your space. Your writing deserves it. 

Now other spaces. It's OK to plan to write with a group of writers or a critique partner. Going places to write with people or alone changes things up and can make you more productive. 

I found for me I write just fine at home but driving to a library or a coffee shop just doesn't work for me. I am not as comfortable sitting alone in an unknown place. I guess coffee shops and libraries are just not my space where my brain works as well. Then you gotta find a place to hook up or plug in and the chairs are not as comfortable etc. And I am irritated at the drive back and forth which I see as wasted writing time when I have a weekend off where I can write. 

So for me space to write is time with my laptop at home in comfort no matter the room. What have you found to work for you?