I have a Lair!
Posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011I started writing seriously in early 2008. I was living in a small 600 sq ft, one room apartment in downtown Calgary, by the Mac’s everyone refers to as the “Crack Mac’s” (you get three guesses why they called it that, and the first two don’t count). At the time, I was sharing that home with my husband and our cat, Minkers. As I’m sure you can imagine, space was at a premium. Most of the time I wrote sitting on the couch or occasionally at our kitchen table. Usually my husband was sitting in the same room playing video games. I finally decided that I wanted an actual office to work at in, namely so that I could get away from being distracted by the hubby’s activities. I was originally thinking of setting up a table and chair in the bedroom, when my husband came up with an even better idea. We had two walk in closets and my husband helped me to convert one of them into a tiny room. That first office was only 4 feet wide by 5 feet long and we fit into it a desk, a large chair and a small DVD stand that doubled as a bookshelf. I couldn’t even shut the door when I was in it.
I’ve come a long way since then. My husband and I moved into a much larger home and I was able to steal one of our new rooms to use as a writing office. Needless to say it’s much bigger than 4′ x 5’. I have an actual bookshelf now as well as shelves covering one wall again filled with books. I used to have an actual desk in it but I found that no matter how clean I kept it or how much I tried to convince myself to start using it I never wanted to. And it wasn’t just when I was having trouble writing. Starting mid-December I was doing 750 words and making my words almost every day. Yet even so, most of those words were written in my front room. I used my office in November for Nanowrimo but only when I couldn’t use my hand any longer and I’d have to start using my Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Finally it occurred to me what the problem might be. All day I work in an office, as insurance agency here in Calgary. I sit at my desk, working on my computer and looking at the clock hoping that they will be over soon. I was subconsciously connecting my desk working at my day job and does avoiding my office as much as possible. I was feeling like I was working two full-time jobs no matter how much or how little I was getting done. So I decided to try something completely different. I took my comfortable chaise from our front room and moved into my office. My productivity jumped amazingly. I really enjoy being in my office now. I haven’t been writing an insane amount more since I started but I have been in here more. The more I’m in here the more I find myself looking at my writing and opening it up when I get bored.
To make the split complete I don’t even refer to it as an office now. I call it my Writing Lair. I’ll include pictures after I’ve finished moving everything into its final place. It’s nice to not only have the place that suits me better but also to be constrained by how I think about something. I learned about this was that it’s not just about having the space, it’s about how you think about your space and what your mindset is in that space.
So where do you write? Do you have a preferred spot? Also what’s your mindset when you’re in that spot?
Tags: Blog, D & D, D&D, motivation, Nanowrimo, Writing, Writing Office, Writing Space
Posted in Blogs by B.A. Matthews | 2 Comments »