Currently, my two favorite lairs for writing are the couch in the den and the desk in the study. (I don’t live in a palace; the two rooms are small and within sight of each other.). In the family room, I lean back on the couch, prop my feet up on coffee table, put a pillow or lap desk under my computer and type away. The desk is a more formal setting. And no matter how I adjust the seat, it’s never quite tall enough, so I look like a kindergartner getting ready to take a nap.
As a writing nook, the couch comes with drawbacks. It is in the center of everything, so I have a great chance of being interrupted by my husband, my daughter or any one of our three dogs. When I started writing this, the oldest dog sat beside me for a while, and then changed places with the middle dog, who is still waiting patiently for me. But being in the middle of everything is also one of the things I like about the couch.
I also have to ignore the television, which is easy when something like football is on. I can listen to sports and still write, but when the family flips to an interesting movie or series, I have a hard time tuning it out. Although if I’m in “the zone,” we could have a tsunami, an earthquake, and a fire and I might not notice. My lair is comfortable, and the cushion on my end of the couch has molded itself to the contours of my body, so I’ll be staying for a while.
When I first started writing, I tried my hand at freelance contract work. I earned a little money doing that, and used some of it to buy a pretty rose-wood secretary desk with a top that folds down. We put it in a corner of the spare bedroom. I used it a time or two until I discovered that the space inside the secretary when the top was folded up was the perfect place to hide books that I need to age before reading them. That way when my husband asks me where they came from, I can truthfully say that I’ve had them for a while. He’s not anti-book – far from it – but every bookcase in our house is full of double rows. My husband thinks the Kindle is the greatest invention since the wheel, because I can gather books at will and we still have living space in the house. Sometimes I still run across a “real” book that I want to add to my collection. Hence the need for the secretary as a hidey-hole and the destruction of its utility as a writing lair. Heaven help me if I ever have to dismantle the secret collection of books also stored up in my office at work!
But, as usual, I digress. For now, the couch is the designated writing spot unless I get a sudden urge to start using the desk again or need the double monitors. Where are your favorite places to write?
When I used a desktop computer, it was formally seated at the credenza behind my desk because I could write and look out the window which was a few stories above ground level. Once I switched to a laptop, it switched to an oversized chair (extra deep) that my mother had made for my father for their first anniversary. The chair predates me by several years (it has been recovered ) and is the one my sister and I rode its arms pretending they were horses and built our tents and covered wagons from.
ReplyDeleteI write ALMOST exclusively at my very messy desk in my very messy office in my very small house. I use a desktop computer and am surrounded by all my research books and notes. I also have a laptop for those occasions when I travel. Then I can write just about anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI write at my desk on the second floor balcony that overlooks the woods and the lake.
ReplyDeleteI have a wonderful recliner. Since I'm supposed to keep my legs elevated as much as possible ("while you're watching TV," the doctor said. But I don't watch TV.) I spend a good deal of my time there. I use a desktop computer on an L-shaped hospital table with wheels that we got when my husband was ill. The screen big, so I can see it without glasses, and the keyboard is also big, a boon to my disabled & aging fingers. (My husband used to say I was put together with spare parts that don't quite mesh.) It works. The view is out a door to the patio and across the way to woods.
ReplyDeleteDebra, I'd call it your imagination chair! Wonderful image.
ReplyDeleteI write at the kitchen table in my newly acquired swivel desk chair with lumbar pillow. I have two views: the deck and newly planted deck flower boxes, and a beloved large watercolor of Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod.
This is wonderful! I love the sound of the secretary desk. How perfect.
ReplyDeleteI am fortunate that I have a dedicated office. That is one of my three favorite writing spots. The others are a tree stand back in the woods, although I haven't tried scaling the metal ladder with my laptop. It's limited to notebooks and pens, the other is on top of a rocky ledge. Both are remote enough to guarantee the only interruptions will come from the wildlife and I can safely take my laptop to the ledge.
At my desk in my writing room tucked under the eaves. The desk is (and has been for close to 40 years) three planks of wood spanning two 2-drawer filing cabinets. I love my room and my desk. I am so lucky!
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