A Special Place To Write

by
Pat Gulley

A Writing Room—Office—Computer Room?

 Where do you write? Do you have your own room to do it in? Is it exclusively yours? Do you have to call it something else, like The Sewing Room, Den, Library, Storage Room or Junk Room as well as your writing place?

            While sitting contemplating my naval and wondering what to blog about, I lifted my eyes to the ceiling in the hopes that the great ceiling writer in the sky would have something all written out for me. But GCWITS must have been busy because all I saw was a dirty light fixture and on the lower edge of my vision, pictures on the wall. So I scanned the rest of the room and decided I had a real, no diversions WRITING room. Computer and related equipment, files, file cabinets, document shelves and holders, tons of pens and pencils, a printer and supplies, a ton of friends and favorite author bookmarks and postcards scattered all over, a bookshelf full of how-tos, favorite books, convention program books and collectibles that make me happy and put me in the mood....TO WRITE. Oh, and most of the walls are covered in art, all SF and Fantasy, but that’s inspiring for me. They may be weird and unusual on first sight, but they can provide some great personality traits for characters. Did I mention collectible oddities? Lots of dragons, perfect for the good the bad and the weird.

            So, yes, I do have a special room. I don’t have to use that dust-collecting, huge old laptop and float around the house looking for inspiration; I do have a place dedicated strictly to my writing. Everything is very familiar, I can sit and stare at each and every piece and have memories that will lead to an idea, good or bad, that I can try out in my present WIP or a half-dozen other partially started stories sitting in my documents. Even start another document if something really interesting formulates in the old brain pan. As an example, what if I wanted to write a story about a woman and her dog. Just to the left of my computer is a print of one of the original ideas of what a Klingon (pre three breasts) and her dog should look like. Okay, it could be a cat, who cares—it’s her pet. Fierce looking, both of them, so to be sure any story I’m ever going to write about a woman and her pet is never going to take on anything soothing and sweet. And to Ms. Klingon’s left is a small print of Menolly and her nine fire-lizards. So nothing ordinary in the pet department for me.

            But if I look elsewhere, I loose all interest in pets, and my mind can wander around and find things to write about. And even if I don’t come up with something, everything causes a pause to contemplate some idea and can switch quickly to something I’m writing and send me on to several pages of new stuff for my protagonists to deal with. And I can thank my own private space for the ideas.

            But being a woman, I will admit to being practical and storing other stuff in the closet. Non-Christmas decorations, pieces of costumes, DirtDevil, etc, etc and some sewing stuff. That sewing machine tries to stick its nose out every so once in a while, but rarely gets any attention unless grandkids’ clothes and stuffed toys get damaged. This room is for writing; I spend more time here than I do in the kitchen, and it gives the TV room and bedroom a run for their money. It is my favorite room, I do love it.

            Since one of the blogs this week was about first lines, please repair back there for the questions.