Sarah Gibbard Cook
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact

A Place to Write 

11/14/2016

2 Comments

 
Where do you do your creative work? What features of a space best support your creativity? Moving house last week gave me the luxury of arranging my new home office, where a bay window juts out into the garden and another window faces the woods.

Writing takes very little space. Depending on availability and taste, writers ply their trade in basements, attics, garden sheds, coffee shops, and kitchen corners. Some swear by a dedicated space with a door that closes. I like a room that both nurtures my spirit and shelters me from internal and external distractions.

Some find nurture in fine art or shelves overflowing with books. Others prefer a bare wall. I’m struck by how many photos of authors at their desks show a window looking out into nature.

Shelter from distraction depends on what distracts you. A closable door is handy if your housemates feel free to interrupt when they see you gaze into space. Writing in a café would distract me with noise and overheard conversations, but it helps others to get away from the distractions of bills and laundry.

As for my new home office, I initially planned to put my desk in the bay window. How lovely to look up from work into the nurture of outdoor greenery! Then I realized that the view of the garden will set my mind churning with landscaping possibilities. Instead the desk is by the window with the forest view. If a deer leaps through the trees, I can delight in it for a moment and then refocus on the task at hand. 
2 Comments
Lisa
11/14/2016 09:08:09 am

Oh, Sarah, a new office is such a joy! It's in a sense a chance to recreate yourself, to refocus on the purpose of the space and make it yours, what you are now, not what you were when you first set up your previous office and which probably hasn't evolved as much as you have since then.

I did a major reno of my office a few years ago, and it's such a joy. I would not change a thing. Yes, my views of the outside distract and when the flowers are in bloom, draw me outside frequently, but then it's not good to sit for hours anyway. So my three windows, facing east, south and west, are a good thing.

Graphic design does take some space (desktop computer, large monitor, scanner, printer) and when you combine it with a photography hobby, more space for a second printer and paper storage, and then there's storage required for 23 years of completed projects.

My office is separate from my playroom, where my sewing machine, yarn and craft supplies live. I have discovered they are very different compartments of my life and they don't mix. Much.

I've recently thought about getting myself a laptop computer strictly for genealogy, so I wouldn't be tethered to my desk, thinking it might help me focus better on that work if I was somewhere else. But then, in reality, I need to look at paper for that, print stuff, and I'm accustomed to my large monitor. So, is that the same for you? I'd think that writing which involves RESEARCH takes more space. One of our mutual friends has a houseful of filing cabinets full of material for her husband's book.

Reply
Sarah link
11/14/2016 10:19:06 am

Nice observation about how we often change faster than our spaces. My previous office was mostly for curriculum and assessment development or articles for Women in Higher Education. This one is geared to history and historical fiction, which require a different sort of focus.

My equivalent of your playroom is one we call either "guest room 2" or "the futon room." At the far end of the house, it has a table for jigsaw puzzles, Christmas wrapping, or other projects that involve spreading out.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed


      ​get updates

    Sign up
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact