Catherine Stine's IDEA CITY

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What Does Your Writing Space Look Like?


A writer spends many hours in his or her den, office, cubicle, studio, or as I affectionately call mine—the rabbit hole. So, the way that the space is arranged is an important aspect of being able to settle in. Are you someone who needs a window, streaming with morning light, or do you prefer a dark, cave? Do you like music when you write? Do you use a boombox, an analog record player, or do you listen on your earbuds to the cache on your iPhone? What’s your playlist for your WIP? Right now mine is Velvet Revolver and anything metal or spooky.

I love to write outside in the summer. Witness my sandaled foot, perched on the wooden table at the Cape retreat.

On the table are essentials: coffee and my iPhone. In another photo, see my view on the wraparound porch. Then, there’s a pic of one of my writing cohorts, Maggie, who shares the side porch with me. It’s a rare person I can actually share space with when I write. This attests to how comfortable I feel around her.

Oh, and there’s my lovely retreat hostess, Helen, in her monkey PJs. You see, part of the writing process involves lounging on a morning porch in kiddie PJs and drinking about five cups of coffee, while we rant and rave about our stubborn characters,


our meandering plots, and all of the things that intervene in the writing process—kids, jobs, um… life?

I also have a photo here of my home studio in NYC (Above).
The array of stuff that I have on the wall facing my desk seems random, but it's very planned out. This is where I post pics of my characters, so I can “talk to them” when I write. I also have pics of my writing mentors—Dale Peck and Steven Wright, to name two. They were teachers of mine in my MFA program, and I still hear their voices, encouraging or demanding more.

What does your writing space look like? Do you like the Spartan or the pack rat approach? Do you post lots of photos of your characters and settings like I do? Or is most everything filed in your head? Do you put up the occasional inspirational saying? My latest favorite is from author Franny Billingsley: “A book is like an elegant and efficient machine. Each cog needs to turn something else and, if it doesn't, it should be taken out.” And what’s your writing playlist? Dish here.

21 comments:

  1. This be strange but I write on my couch. Have my lap desk, laptop, my phone, my assortment of flash drives, and my day planner. It's not an office whatsoever but it's comfortable. I like quiet when I write, which is why I do most of my writing during my daughter's (and husband's when he's home) nap time.

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  2. I have a bedroom set up as an office. My husband gave me a beautiful desk for my birthday. I put my labtop on it along with pictures and little figurines, called Friar Folk, that act as my writing guardians. No music, it would distract me. A glass of cool water, the ceiling fan, plenty of light and I'm ready to go.

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  3. Haha, Stephanie, love the friar folk-as-writing guardian idea! And Kelly, yes, when my boys were tots, I used to write while they napped.

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  4. Wow! Those are inviting places to write. I also like to be close to nature. Green sceneries, water and sunlight help to keep the ideas flowing.

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  5. I do most of my writing on my couch, while watching TV. I like to have it on in the background, though it can sometimes be distracting and I don't get anything done.

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  6. Yipes, I can do music, but TV? You must be an expert at multi-taskiing.

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  7. I don't have a playlist but my writing space is a MESS!!!!

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  8. Great post, Catherine! Funny, just this morning, our farrier came to trim our horses' hooves. He brought his nine year old daughter along, so she and I walked the garden. When we came around to my bedroom windows, she saw my messy writing desk and the many photos, clipping, articles I have pinned to my denim curtains. She said, "Oh, that must be your teenagers room." I asked her why she thought so, and she replied, "Oh, because teenagers have messy rooms and stuff hung up all over the place."

    I had to giggle because the window view showed just that! A messy desk with books and magazine in stacks, a lucky bamboo plant in a vase, and tons of pictures pinned to my curtain. It was too funny!

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  9. Beth, it would be funny to show us a photo of your studio! I doubt you have more piles of papers than me... and Candy,you have horses?! That's very cool. Have you ever written about them?

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  10. I've started cleaning, sorting, and rearranging my "sanctuary" as I call my writing room, because I can't find a thing.

    I prefer quiet and have a big window where I can watch the hummingbirds while I'm daydreaming.

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  11. Okay, it's confession time. I only write from bed, propped up on my pillows, staring out at the trees and bird bath. No music. Silence. Just me, the laptop, and all the noise inside my head.

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  12. Angelina, your "confession" made me laugh. Everyone is such a unique character!

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  13. I've tried a number of places, but I've ended up with my laptop on the kitchen table with my stuff spread out on both sides of me -- which sometimes means little room for eating!

    I can sometimes work with music, but I do better with silence. And silence is essential when I'm working on revisions.

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  14. I think I'll just use your writing space, looks pretty good!
    Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers

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  15. Hahha, Charmaine, I like your sense of humor. Do you write comedy?

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  16. I have a great desk set up in our dining room with a lovely view of meadow-y common area in our neighborhood. The only drawback is that it's a public area in our house...but when I need inspiration, I withdraw and put on those monkey pajamas!

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  17. Yes, those monkeys will jabber and nag you back to work.

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  18. Yes, those little monkeys will jabber at you to get back to work!

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  19. That first picture is so Zen. I wish I had a clear surface like it, but mines a jumble and stays that way for months at a time. When I finish a project I cull the scraps and clean up, but that doesn't last for long.

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  20. A post from my blog - http://cathykozak.com - reads: I finally have a room of my own and have worn a path from the old red couch to my desk in its perpetual state of wordy chaos, to the books misaligned on the shelves behind me, bindings akimbo, shifting to and fro to get the very best view of the mountains; to the window seat and the little flowered ottoman and yes, when the weather’s fine – which isn’t today – down the creaking stairs and over the snorting pug on the landing and through the Mexican room with its marigold walls and its sand table and the creased Rivera print and out onto back porch and the wheezy old swing with a handful of words at my fingertips…

    copyright © 2007-2011 by cathy kozak

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  21. Nice, Cathy, I especially love the mention of the snorting pug.

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