Making Space
Many writer have rituals around where, when and how they do their writing. There is always the danger of becoming too attached to them, of course. If you have to sit in the blue chair with your coffee in the green mug in front of the poster of Hawaii (to remind you of what you can do when you’re a famous writer, of course) what happens when you’re visiting Aunt Lizzie for a week? Or when you’re stuck waiting while your car is worked on for two hours, and it would be the perfect time to get some writing done, but you don’t have your blue chair and your green mug and your poster?
On the other hand, finding ways to tell your brain “now it’s time to get to work” can definitely help your productivity. I’ve never tied myself to writing in a certain environment, but I have tried small things that are portable. Like playing certain music, playing a certain solitaire game, even a certain smell (a sandalwood mix was nice). I’ve switched from music to a looped falling-rain track, which I don’t use all the time, but I still do five minutes of solitaire before and between every fifteen-minute writing time. (Fifteen minutes seems to be about the limit of my concentration when I’m not in the middle of a good stretch. Sometimes I keep going when the timer goes off, but I always do at least the fifteen. Well, almost always.)
However, I’ve come around to trying a dedicated space for writing at home. I don’t think it’s something I’ll depend on too much, but I have to admit that it could help. Right now I’ve been writing in the mornings and evenings sitting on the couch in the living room with my laptop. Problem number one is that I have to do this while the Kid is in bed, which limits my time. Number two is that the laptop has been plugged into the internet all the time, and since the couch is more comfortable than the computer desk, the laptop has morphed into my primary online computer. I’m pretty good about not going online when I’m supposed to be writing, but that’s still not a good thing.
I live in a two-bedroom duplex with the Kid, so a dedicated room is out of the question. This afternoon I shoved things around in my bedroom to free up a little space. I now have a comfortable chair facing the window which is going to be used only for writing in. There’s a phone there within arm’s reach so I don’t have to jump up when it rings, and, since I don’t use wireless, there’s no internet access.
I’ll add a few decorating touches soon, since I want this to be a place I enjoy being in. And I’m going to be strict about my no-sitting-without-writing policy. Now we’ll see how long it takes my brain to learn to flip the writing switches when I sit down there. I’m on vacation this week, which on the one hand means I ought to have more time for writing, but on the other means a lack of schedule and more things going on. Hopefully this writing space will help me focus on getting a good number of words out despite the chaos.