My parents are in the midst of remodeling their house (FINALLY! After 20 years!), so this vacation we’re staying at my grandmother’s house, across the driveway. Granted, she’s remodeling too, but she at least has three usable bedrooms. After Carl left (he has to work the rest of this week, but the littles and I are staying to play for a bit longer), I moved upstairs so Gram could have her room, with the only double bed, back.
The walls are pale fawn, the ceiling slants down on one side, there’s a window overlooking the tangled trees which are currently blocking the pond, but will be trimmed back eventually. There’s a little white bed and a bookcase. My very first thought, as I dumped the suitcase beside the bed, was: “This is the perfect writing room.”
(My second thought was that it looked like an Anne of Green Gables room, but that’s slightly irrelevant to this topic.)
I could just see myself set up at a little desk by the window, looking out at the trees for inspiration (most likely with my chin propped on my hand), and then tapping furiously at my keyboard, producing a story in the shortest time ever.
It won’t happen – for one thing, there’s no desk. For another, I have two littles who never let me have that much time to myself. But it was nice to imagine.
At home, I write wherever and whenever I get a few spare moments. It’s one of the reasons I love my laptop so. Kitchen counter, dining room table, Carl’s desk, the easy chair with my legs up on the footrest, in bed … sometimes even on the floor. And it works, but I would love, someday, to have a room which is set aside just for writing, where everything has been planned around and is conducive to the creative process. One that I don’t have to share with the main life of the family!
Do you have a room or space set aside just for writing? What does your perfect writing room look like?
No, but I surely wish I did. It would need to be next to a window. I've noticed that ever since we moved to our current house and my desk isn't near a window, my writing is almost nonexistent.
No writing room. A laptop that gets dragged all over the place to do my work, though. 😉
Adrienne – Whenever Carl puts the desk someplace where it doesn't face a window, or at least have one close enough that I can see out it without actually turning around in the chair, I cannot use it for more than five minutes without getting claustrophobic. Windows are so important!Laura – Whatever did writers do before they invented laptops?
I have a writing room, but I end up moving my laptop around a lot of the time anyway. Your room sounds nice, even without the desk. Hope you find a way to write in it.
Kirsten – I was able to get some writing done (mostly when I ought to have been sleeping … but hey, it was vacation!). The nice thing about laptops is they can be used even in bed!