27 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Your Writing Space

  1. Archeological dig! I know where EVERYTHING is, however!

    Have a great weekend, Jim.

  2. Your picture “shows” it well. Just emptied another office, so there are rows and rows of boxes stacked up three high in my writing office. But the writing must go on. I can’t be interrupted by the cares of this world. I’ll get to it sometime.

  3. I suck at descriptions. But, here’s the bare bones: spare bedroom, scarred cherrywood desk with return in the corner. Printer, file racks, everything else accumulated on the desk. Window to my right (overlooking front yard and wildlife) and another in front of me (with hummingbird feeder at the moment). All-in-one computer blocking most of the window in front of me, second monitor at about two o’clock. Clocks and calendar on the wall above.

    Blue La-Z-Boy in the left corner for reading. Bookshelves along the left wall. Mostly books. Needlepoint projects from my pre-writing days above them. Dog bed on the floor in front of them. Dog may or may not be present.

    Storage, shelves, and disastrous clutter fill the reach-in closet behind me. Doors permanently open.

  4. I can’t concentrate in a mess. Lots of stuff, but it’s clean and organized. Can’t write without my dinosaur poop on my desk (it’s a thing-Google it) – it reminds me that what I’m worried about today, won’t matter in a million years or so….and also a reminder not to write crap.

  5. My living room suffers from identity disorder because it has to serve multiple purposes. One corner for the day job work space, one corner for personal/writing life work space, tiny home gym, forced storage area, and far too infrequent art studio—all in the confines of a small living room in a 1 bedroom apartment.

    My “desk” (2 low shelving units & a slab of Lowe’s plywood) is relatively uncluttered–in addition to computer equipment, there is a small pile of to-do lists, & a notebook for scribbling. I can’t stand having a lot of stuff piled up on my desk. It’s too inhibiting.

    On the floor off to my right is a pile of history books that I never get enough time to read. Not enough floor space for bookshelves. ACK!

  6. Cleanish…much better than 3 weeks ago when I turned in my book. Took two days to get it to the cleanish stage.

  7. I work best in the evening on the couch with the TV droning. Either food network, hockey, or the Olympics. Keeps half my mind occupied so I don’t wander down unhelpful paths.

    • Same except its cable news. Easier to ignore than sports. Same space is my digital photo workroom.

  8. Reasonably neat, but I eat many of my meals while listening to podcasts on my computer. Don’t judge, I live alone, and someone else’s voice is precious, these days. Anyway, I have protective towels around to cover my keyboard in case of spills and as a landing place for my plate or bowl. My printer/copier is to my left, a small stash of notepads and several packs of Truvia are under the iMac, my peripharals are behind the computer, and to the right back of the desk is a glass of fountain pens. Other objects appear and disappear as needed. Currently, I have a few business files on the printer, and tucked neatly in bare areas are some nail goop for a damaged finger nail, allergy pills, and an old weight-lifting glove I wear when I’m doing some serious mousing.

  9. I liked the way Terry described her office, so I’ll follow suit.

    My office is in the guest room. The guest bed is a Murphy bed, so it doesn’t take up much room — until we have guests, of course. The room has a sliding glass door out onto a deck, but there’s so much furniture in the room we never go out that door. I keep the drapes drawn, so it’s like a cave. An assortment of (not enough) shelves house books and videos. Opposite the Murphy bed is a three-door closet which serves as a post-it note holder to lay out the three-act structure for whatever the current book is.

    My desk sits against the wall opposite the sliding glass door. After marveling at the amount of stuff I had stacked on my desk last year, my husband bought me a six-foot long desk that is my pride. Since I do all the household accounting as well as writing, I figured I was worth it. 🙂 My old windows laptop that I use for email, bill-paying, etc has a place of honor in the center of the desk. A MacBook Air used for publishing business occupies the left slide-out shelf.

    My super-comfy recliner sits between the desk and Murphy bed under a charming wall clock that was a recent gift from a neighbor. It’s a special reminder since I write books about watches, clocks, and time. I use the third laptop, a MacBook Pro to write in the recliner.

    I have a small whiteboard propped on my desk with my daily schedule noted on it. At the top is one of my favorite writing reminders: Festina Lente!

  10. Right now it’s my kitchen table because my son is home for the summer and is occupying my writing room – part of which is done up like a 1920s detective office with all the tropes of the time. But my kitchen is a dangerous, dangerous place and it’s possessed by some sort of demonic force. Just ask Sue Coletta. She knows the entire story of what went on in my kitchen.

  11. Organized, but full of stuff. My writing room doubles as a book room. I have a wall of custom made floor-to-ceiling book shelves sized for mass market paperbacks on the wall behind me, filled with said paperbacks. I have a writing desk off to my left, below a window, and then my 1990s computer hutch is flanked by two free standing book shelves. I have a pile of boxes in a corner next to the closet. Oh, and I also have several small telescopes in the room, because of my renewed passion for star gazing.

    I have stacks of tailor-made fezzes (true story) on top of the book shelf on the computer hutch, and more on top of one of the tall free standing shelves.

    A crowded space, but it is my space, and I feel very fortunate for that. In a pinch, I’ll write in the kitchen, or outdoors in the back yard when the weather is good.

  12. My ‘office’ consists of a recliner in the living room, and a tiny desk in the 4×5 box in my garage that serves as my recording booth/mini-mancave. The recliner ‘office’ is fairly neat, since I only have one side table to hold stuff. The booth on the other hand being quit small, one would think it would be difficult to clutter, but I manage.
    😀

    • Yeah, and in that dark little booth of his, it gets really crowded when we’re all four of us leprechauns in there with him! Especially if Gerald the Troll joins us, he is very very large for being mostly in Mr. Basil’s mind.

  13. My writing room is clean, neat, organized, and oddly shaped.

    It’s roughly 130 sq. ft. but it narrows to an acute angle in one corner, which renders the floor area in that end only useful for a floor lamp. The walls don’t reach to the ceiling because the room was partitioned off from the main living space when the unit was converted from mill space into artist work/live lofts, but it has a door. When the door is closed, I’m not to be disturbed.

    I have a decent rolling desk chair. My desk is a sturdy folding table, 4ft x 8ft. On top I have my Lenovo laptop with separate keyboard, a Merriam Webster’s dictionary against the back wall on the right, and a wooden tray with office supplies against the back wall, left.

    On the wall behind and above my desk, I have two magnetic white boards. One holds printouts of a calendar showing the year of my current WIP, names and notes for characters, an explanation of when to hyphenate numbers, and any notes relevant to the current WIP. I use the second board to map out details and theories about the murder(s), in the same manner as my detective.

    Beside my desk, is a low, two-shelf bookcase that holds all my writing related books. Beside that is a loveseat-coffee table arrangement, which is closest to the door end. All the furnishings are small-scale so I can move around without banging my knees or walking into walls.

  14. I have “stuff” everywhere, but I know where something is when I need it. A spotless desk wouldn’t match the maze of plot threads, research notes, and characterization goin’ on inside my head. 😀

  15. The kudzu tried, but couldn’t get a hold amid all the stuff.

    And it really annoys organized people that I can quickly find what I’m looking for in the piles. 🙂

  16. It used to be a mess, but now it’s a minimalist paradise. Keyboard. Monitor. Mouse and mouse mat. That’s it.

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