Your Writing Corner.

I don't really notice much beyond my monitor when I'm writing, so I'd say it doesn't really matter. I spent more time, energy (and $$$) on the right desk and chair. Though in the end, I write at the library, I write at the kitchen table on my laptop, I write wherever...

My desktop is in a room painted a light robins egg blue and decorated with all kinds of catly images. Creatively messy, I can't work any other way. Even have a sign on top of my monitor that states "Please don't straighten the mess on my desk! You'll goof up my system." File cabinets a boring black(must do something about that one day, like stripes in neon colors or something. A rock maple hutch with a collection of catty dodads is on my right under the window(done in blue and white gingham curtains)Pine bookcase on the left beside the door. Pictures of friends and family as well as odds and sods about writing are pinned to a large bulletin board on the wall behind my monitor. The computer itself rests on an antique library desk and a steel secretarys typerwriter desk holds the cpu and printer.

I still write in front of the TV on yellow lined pads on occasion and even jot notes in a small pad I carry around with me when struck by a story idea while out and about. Have even written a story on restaurant napkins!

I don't always notice my surroundings conciously, but I think they are always part of my writing ambience anyway.

My workspace is usually a coffee shop. Especially the one in my local Barnes and Noble. For some reason I seem to write better away from home!

Huh? Peers out of her computer... There is anywhere else?

Behind my laptop on the table is a 3-tier bookshelf with my 'inspirations': nifty wooden box thingy for my fav pens, assorted notebooks, a wooden bowl with tarot cards & rune stones, a small wicker basket with sea rocks that are full of holes, the top shelf has my dragon fantasy blade collection and several stuffed animals. The walls are cream, pictures are from vacation spots with lots of mountains and waterfalls.

I know what's there, watching over me, and that's not interference.

SuzyB said:

Does anyone have a writing corner they usually never leave when writing a really good section of your story? Does your corner/office/small room have any color? Are the walls painted, or do you simply have it white?

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We have a solarium in the rear of the house. We had to redo the room after we moved in. The walls are yellow, it has yellow curtains, green trim, six windows, hardwood floor. The windows overlook the back yard, which makes for a nice place to relax the eyes.

I keep my laptop in there and write in there about half the time. I can close the door and keep it quiet. It's a great little room.

allen

I work on my laptop in the family room, often handicapped by one more cats (right now, one is plastered to my side while the other is weighing down my left arm). The walls are decorated with Disney Cruise Line memorabilia which reminds me of one of the main reasons I work (to vacation). The big screen TV is tuned to court shows, Animal Planet or Comedy Central to keep me company. All in all a good environment.

Yup, I've got a dedicated writing corner in the home office my husband and I share. The walls were an icky dark beige when we moved in. Strangely enough, the office was the last room we painted. I don't know why we thought we could stand the beige in this room over all the others.

Anyway, when we painted the office light blue, the whole mood of the room changed. I brightened it up even more with a red rug, a set of bright red school lockers (I write YA, so they're appropriate!), a bunch of vintage advertisements, and several clocks. In my writing corner, I've taped up my character collages / posters, and I have a big corkboard on which I tack my current outline, a list of goals and motivations for each scene in my novel, printouts of some agent blog entries I found motivational, and a couple writing-related quotations and sayings.

I have a laptop, so I don't always write in my writing corner, but I've got it fixed so that it's hard to sit down here without thinking, "Time to write!"

I've been writing in this chair a lot lately. I use my laptop and sit with the fire on. Yes... it's still cold enough to have the fire on most nights.

My office is a spare bedroom totally jammed with other stuff. There's a chair where my dogs sit and watch me or sleep. I never did anything to paint it or fix it up since moving in 8 years ago. It has old peeling wallpaper, part white paint. Pictures tacked to every surface, stacks of books, art papers half finished art projects, sculptures-- everything. It is just an all purpose thinking and doing room.

You guys are inspiring me to redecorate my corner. I have a desk in the corner of our bedroom but I don't use it much because it feels dark and cramped. And I have a laptop, so I usually end up on the couch or the kitchen table. Hmm, I wonder how I could liven things up?

JoNightshade said:

You guys are inspiring me to redecorate my corner. I have a desk in the corner of our bedroom but I don't use it much because it feels dark and cramped. And I have a laptop, so I usually end up on the couch or the kitchen table. Hmm, I wonder how I could liven things up?

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I've found good lighting is important. Less eye strain. I like to have some sort of bulletin board with "inspiring" pictures-- things that pertain to your WIP. Other than that, it can look like anything.

White is a great, highly underrated color! And for some people it's important not to have visual distractions, so that they can switch more easily to their imaginary world.

But make sure your writing space is comfortable physically - that it enables good posture and few injuries.

I work in several places regularly.

At work: My computer station is surrounded by black file cabinets, which give it a cozy cave-like enclosure. Shelves over the monitor, on which I keep reference books, my rubber duck with yellow cocktail umbrella, my Borg ship, a sketch of Voldemort, and The Office 365 Day calendar. Behind me is an ancient radio playing NPR all day, except Saturdays, when my local talk radio station has some good funky offerings, like the tarot card reader who tells fortunes over the air and the Ghost Hunters radio show.

At home: The computer sits on a 100 year old desk that amazingly enough was built with a pull-out shelf exactly suited to holding keyboard and mouse. Back in 1918, a young boy cut his name into the desktop. The wallpaper here is very restful -- a small print in deep jewel-tones: teal, midnight blue, soft coral, rose. My precious original Yoshitoshi print is on the wall: It shows a samurai in restless sleep, while the ghost of an old man wafts toward him on a cloud of living darkness.

At Starbucks: the corner table, which is big enough for four, so lots of room to spread things out. To the left is the fireplace. To the right is the window, and right outside it a threadleaf maple tree full of the sparrows who've taken up permanent residence to take advantage of crumbs from the patio loungers. I find the warm rusty browns and sages and teals of this Starbucks both soothing and compelling.

At the Coffee Exchange: one of the two window tables that overlook busy Wickenden Street. On the walls here are a couple of origami dogwood branches and innumerable notices of apartments for rent, services offered, bands to appear, and theatrical ads. The pervasive aroma is of coffee roasted on the premises, coffee from all over the world. Very stimulating.

Honestly I can work anywhere! One day when I move out of my parents house - yes I still live at home (mostly for the healthcare and lack of money to move out as my tuition takes over my life) but I write wherever I feel like being at the moment - tho I do enjoy lying on the basement floor on my stomach with a clipboard and some paper or my laptop in front of me. But i've also gone to libraries, the coffee pub, or the island in my kitchen. Though usually I write in my bedroom because I have a noisy and distracting house when I'm not home alone and cannot think about having them distract me. Besides, my stepdad is one of those people that would look over at your screen and go - what'cha doing?

Nothing aggravates me more when I'm writing my WIP - also, for some reason, my parents are the only people I never let read my work, so that could have something to do with it haha.

But I say make the room as comfortable for you as possible - that's all that matters.

Good luck and happy decorating

SuzyB said:

Does anyone have a writing corner they usually never leave when writing a really good section of your story? Does your corner/office/small room have any color? Are the walls painted, or do you simply have it white?

Click to expand...

I do all my work in the "comfy chair" in my living room. It's by the back window, looking out on the deck, so I can watch the birds and squirrels come and go. I have a small side table to my left where I pile all my "stuff." Another table to my right where I pile all my research materials (books, JSTOR printouts, etc). An ottoman (theoretically it's for my feet, but most times it's occupied by one of the cats). The other cat perches on the back of the chair, half-slung over my shoulder, like a drunken parrot. The dog, ever flatulent, passes out under the left-side table. I turn over the remote to my wife, so I'm not tempted to do anything else (watching my TiVO items, for instance) while I'm writing.

It seems to work for me.

When I'm not writing at the coffeeshop I'm at home, and my desk has a cork board above it with pocs of all my characters.

I go to web sites like photobucket, Pbase, and others and look through people pics until I find someone that looks like a characters I've put in a story, print it out, and voila, there's a real live, pic of my character!

Same thing for pics of locations....

ALSO, the best writing corner I ever had was in a previous house, and my office there had cappucino colored paint....very soothing color to write by!

underthecity said:

We have a solarium in the rear of the house. We had to redo the room after we moved in. The walls are yellow, it has yellow curtains, green trim, six windows, hardwood floor. The windows overlook the back yard, which makes for a nice place to relax the eyes.

I keep my laptop in there and write in there about half the time. I can close the door and keep it quiet. It's a great little room.

allen

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My vote is for the yellow and green etc....this sounds like a good one.