by Bobbie Christmas
I devoted an entire chapter to my Bill of Writes for writers in my seven-award-winning book on creative writing titled Write In Style: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing. Special to WPN, I have agreed to list and explain each item in my Bill of Writes through a series of articles. Below is number four in my Bill of Writes. Watch for the remaining items in future newsletters.
You Have the Right to Have a Place Where You Write
When I was young, I envied my mother for having her little office nook in the kitchen, a desk loaded with cubbyholes. In her space she could talk on the phone, pay bills, spread papers out, write, or do whatever she saw fit. In that era mothers stayed home, but they still had much paperwork to do.
Daddy, who left every day for his office, where he had his own desk, also had a desk in my parents’ bedroom. I envied him for having that space where he could sit at his manual typewriter and strike keys with concentration. There he wrote his essays and personal letters. Even as a child I longed to own a desk like his, so I could write down my ideas, poems, and personal letters.
As an adult with my own home, I have created several spaces where I can write. I maintain my business office on the lower level of my house, but if I don’t feel like going down the stairs into a sometimes chilly bottom floor, I keep a laptop upstairs. I can work comfortably on the laptop in at least two places upstairs: on my kitchen table or on a lap table in the living room.
You too deserve a location that is yours, a retreat of your own.
What and where are your spaces? If you do not have a space, make one today. Let it be sacred, all yours, a place where you can write in peace and comfort. Ideally it should be a place where you can spread out your work and leave it, without having to clear it off for business, company, or family use.
Bobbie Christmas is a book doctor with twenty-five years of experience and is the author of Write In Style: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Craft, winner of seven awards. Her website is www.zebraeditor.com.