Writing Space

Just as important as our writing time is our writing space.  Writing space is actually very simple - it's the place where you write.  It can either be your desk or the dining room table or wherever you feel the best you can sit down to put your thoughts on paper.  And, like everything else, you need to test out your writing space to see if it works for you.

I have three writing spaces.  I have a desk in my room, the dining room table, and Starbucks.  I know one doesn't seem like the other two, but I get a lot more done at Starbucks than I do at home.  I'm not sure if it's the caffeine or the fact that, since I'm out of the house, I feel like I have to do more.  Or that I'm more focused because there's less to distract me.  Or there's the feeling like there is, considering there's still the internet and everything that goes along with it.  No, I think Starbucks has that special charm because it feels like a space where one really does go to write.  Any coffee shop has that charm for me but I know it's not the same for everyone.

As for my desk, I seem to be using it for my planner decorating and writing in this blog.  It is a creative space and I do write fiction during NaNoWriMo but it's also very limiting.  For one, I am cut off from the rest of the house because I'm upstairs and I can close my door.  It's effective when I really need to write or have alone time but it's not very social.  Also, there are a ton of distractions up here, simply from my DVD collection alone, but also from my books.  It is very tempting to just pick up a book and read instead of getting that chapter done.  Yet, when push comes to shove, I can get work done.  I just need to remember to do it.

And the last of my writing spaces, the dining room table, is nice as I'm in the thick of it, but it is one of the places where sometimes I get no work done.  It's downstairs, so there are a ton of distractions like the dirty dishes in the sink.  Or needing to tidy up.  Or what was that sound in the kitchen and oh, I need more coffee, and you see how it goes.  The dining room table requires a lot more inner energy going outward to get things done than it is the other way around.  But yet, I will get work done.  It just takes a lot of ignoring the rest of the house around me.

So, dear readers, where do you write?  What works and doesn't work for you?  And, as always, keep on writing.