The second thing I'm thankful for in my writing life is the place where I put words together to create stories, essays and articles.
Twenty years ago, when I first started writing, I hauled out my electric typewriter and sat at the kitchen table to write. I had to put the typewriter and all the papers strewn around it away when the session was finished. Somehow, it didn't seem right to leave it on our table while we ate dinner every evening. Call me a neatnik, but no, all I wanted at dinnertime was food and the plates to eat it from. The next day, after Ken left for work, out came the typewriter again.
When we moved back to Kansas 15 years ago, we purchased a 4 bedroom house. You can be sure that I designated one bedroom to become an office. No more typewriter on the kitchen table! Within a year, we had purchased a computer, a desk, another computer desk, chairs for each, a 2 drawer file cabinet and a bookcase to furnish the new office.
I'm still using it and still gleeful to have my own space. The bookcase holds many writing books plus folders filled with things I like to keep at hand. The file cabinet holds copies of my published work in magazines and newspapers and other things related to writing. I keep hard copies of everything I write in two large binders sitting on a shelf. The desktop is filled with various things my husband and I both need, and the shelves above it are a great place to display framed family pictures. The walls are covered with certificates of accomplishment like my husband's degrees and Bar Association certificate along with awards we have both been honored with over the years. The computer desk holds my laptop and printer and a stack of papers that I keep thinking I'll sort through but never get to!
This office affords me some privacy and a quiet place to write. I'm not disturbing anyone else in the house, namely my husband, and his TV or radio don't bother me in here either. While the office was originally meant for both of us, he uses it only once in awhile. As for me, I spend a good share of my day in here.
I love this place where I write. It is one of the blessings in my writing life. I hope all writers can carve even a small nook in their home to call their own for the time they spend writing.
Hello Nancy! I think it helps so much to have a space like this you can claim for your own. It's the same for painting for me. I was more reluctant to paint when I had to haul everything out to the kitchen table (with terrible lighting, by the way!) and then put it all away again just because it was time for lunch, dinner, etc. I feel so luck to have a place to call my studio! If anyone else lived in our house they would call it a dining room, but for me it's a place to paint, write and to be creative.
ReplyDeleteHaving to move painting and all that goes with it would be even worse than moving the typewriter etc. Bet your kids know that it is "Mom's Space"
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