A Place to Dream
Where do you write? Do you need peace and quiet to concentrate or are you able to write with noise?
Reading chair. USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum, San Diego. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2022
About 20 years ago, my husband and I bought our first house, a 1930s two-bedroom terrace that had had a recent ground floor extension built on the back of the kitchen.
The house came with a small back garden and a shed. At the time I was working freelance, designing and building websites, so the sun-room extension became the ideal place for me to set up my computer on a corner desk I bought from Ikea. The days were quiet, no children at this point, and the only interruption was the surprisingly loud purring of our two ginger cats that lived with us at the time.
During our first winter there, the cold from the concrete floor seeped into my feet causing chilblains on my toes. The thin carpet did nothing to keep the floor warm. My granny, peering at my red itchy toes, said the floor of the sun-room was to blame. Plus the poor circulation in my feet. She was right. Soon after her visit, I bought the materials to replace the carpet with narrow planks of wood laminate flooring, popular at the time, which my husband and I spent the weekend clipping and glueing together to create a warmer floor for healthier feet.
I could, of course, just have worn a pair of slippers.
A Space for Creative Work
The garden shed became my darkroom. I pinned blackout material at the windows, moved aside any garden tools and set up my enlarger on the workbench the previous owners had left behind. There was enough space to lay out three trays of chemicals for developing and fixing my black & white photographs. The shed had no insulation which meant I boiled in the heat of summer and froze in the depths of winter. The extreme temperatures made it impossible to keep the developing chemicals at a steady 20C and after a while, I stopped going into the shed. My DIY black and white printing days were over.
Desks and Chairs
There have been other spaces. Usually, a desk pushed up against a wall in a family room where during my girls’ nap time I could sit quietly with a cup of tea doing some photo editing before they stirred again for the afternoon's excitement.
Then in the interest of trying to stop my body from ageing into the shape of a chair, I started standing at my desk. At first, I didn’t have a proper standing desk. When we moved to Canada in 2017, I used the ironing board (which was rarely used to iron) as my desk. I balanced my laptop on top of a pile of books or a box, anything really that could get the keyboard to the right height for typing. It wasn’t ideal and after a time I developed an ache in my neck and shoulders.
Eventually, we bought a standing desk that could be raised or lowered. What a discovery! This is how I sit now, gently wobbling about on an exercise ball, my desk lowered to the perfect height for my arms.
Time for a Change
Lately, though I've been changing my writing place habits. The trouble for me is in all the distractions. Where I have my desk is in a space without a door. It's fully open to the rest of the house. There's a large beautiful window where I can witness the change in the weather. I see my kids walking back from school in the afternoon. I see Canada Post delivering the mail and all the dogs and their walkers ambling passed our front garden. I can watch the tiny birds fly to and from the bushes and the man across the road mowing his lawn.
I find it hard to resist, all this activity. I am exceptionally nosey. And that’s before I’ve logged on and started down the rabbit hole of news articles, instagram posts and text messages from family and friends.
To try and focus my attention I’ve tried using my AirPods. But after a few minutes my ears begin to ache inside. My husband suggested I wear his noise-cancelling headphones. Better. But sometimes I just need total concentration.
Down in the Basement
We're lucky to live in a house with a basement, something British houses don't usually have. British houses find any extra space in the loft at the top rather than digging deep into the ground. Here at home in Canada, there's a windowless corner of the house that we use as a movie room. It's perfect for writing in. The walls are painted a dark grey. It feels like a comfortable silent tomb. I take paper and a pen and I sit on the floor with my notebook resting on the fluffy beanbag chair that belongs to my youngest daughter. I shut the door and write, spewing forth the random thoughts in my brain which I then edit into a cohesive (hopefully) blog post later on my computer. Anything longer is being collected into a separate notebook known as The First Draft.
There's no computer for me to double-check something for research purposes and I leave my phone in the kitchen. It's very old school and very liberating. My brain enjoys the rest. I do feel a little discombobulated when I venture upstairs. I imagine it's how you might feel if you've been travelling back through time.
Oh? Is it raining now? The sun was shining an hour ago.
Where Do You Write?
After all this effort using rooms and corners and garden sheds to work in, I have a few points of advice. Here are my tips on finding that space, large or small that can help you focus on your writing, a space to dream.
First of all, it's useful to think about how you work.
Do you mind background noise?
Do you need music?
Or do you need complete silence?
JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter in an Edinburgh cafe. Neil Gaiman writes in a gazebo at the bottom of his garden. For you, the local library might be good. If there’s one nearby. There’s usually desk space and other people doing purposeful work. For some of you this might be motivating.
For those who need quiet, there are writers who work in tiny spaces in their home; a closet, their car, an outside shed or a garage. Or you might have a spare room you use for guests. Use that. Your guests can always sleep on the floor.
If you can't shut the world away, try headphones.
I find noise-cancelling best. If you prefer to write to music this works too by not disturbing any other occupants that share your home.
Put your phone away.
Right away, preferably in a different room. I know. You hear this advice all the time. Think about it though. Even silent, your phone will call to you like a singing siren at sea. Resistance is futile. Just put your phone somewhere else.
If you can write longhand, great!
Paper and pen are all you need. If you write on your computer, then for the time you write, quit your email and put a screentime limit on your browser. Or use an app like Omwriter which is a tool for writers to help limit the distractions so easily available on your computer.
Prepare to be Amazed
Look at what your brain can achieve when you limit distractions. If you need to research something or check a resource, make a note as you write your first draft. You can come back to that in your edit. Set aside focused time as you go along to check and research as you need to but try not to do it first. You'll never get any writing done. Trust me. I’ve tried.
Hope that helps. Let us know in the comments how you get on.
Until next time.
My makeshift standing desk. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2017
