so what does your writing area / room look like?

I'm on a desk in my room. There's a plush toy, two loudspeakers, a palm pilot that hasn't been used in years, a cactus, a happy bamboo and a lamp. Then there's my laptop and an ergonomic keyboard plugged into it.

I guess that if I got thirsty I could drink the happy bamboo's water.

Anywhere next to an ashtray, some cigarette paper and rolling tobacco, a shot glass and a pint of whiskey, and a good view of the stars at night with nothing else alive around.

Big table for the laptop, 1 or 2 cats demanding attention, a small bokshelf on the table filled with fun stuff like my dragon fantasy blade collection, 1 lion, 2 Tiggers, 3 teddy bears, a basket of special rocks, my Tarot of the Cat People, assorted notebooks, the old laptop, and the hammer 'cuz I still need to put up pix since I repainted the office walls.

Hubby's PC is under the stairs in the dining room, mines next to it. It's covered in scraps of paper with indecipherable scrawls on them, and currently has a pot to hold pens, five separate notebooks, an ashtray, tobacco, three full packs of rolling papers, five empty pack of rolling papers, a piece of paper with my daughter's inked handprints on, several little love messages that she wrote for me, a dictionary / thesaurus, a printout of teh latests beta I'm doing, a copy of the Smarties Book of Pirates left by my son, three dead batteries, four knackered hair bungees, several bits of computer that should be on hubby's desk ( grrr) and the most important -- the glass of wine.

I am not a domestic goddess, what can I say? Well in the bedroom maybe...

A computer in the old (unused) dining room with a bunch of junk around it. *LOL*

It'd be nice to have a special writing place, but honestly, the computer is all I have, and we're kind of messy...

Well, I have a designated writing room, but it's such a mess(paperwork strewn everywhere) that I mostly work on the laptop now in the living room or on the screen porch when the weather is just right.

My writing room is a room downstairs in the basement that the DH built. I call it "The Cave". He made some built in shelves, drawers, and counter tops and there is an extra bed in there. It has a slate floor, the counters are kind of burnt sienna color(reddish brown I guess) the walls are textured and they are painted a sand color. The whole room was designed to house my Native American statues, sand paintings, artifacts, etc. The color scheme reminds me of the mountains and the land in El Paso which I really miss.

There are no windows in this area of the basement, but he installed 3 sets of light switches so that I can turn different lights on in different places. The lights have dimmer switches that are kind of nice. If you turn out all of the lights the room is pitch black, which is really good for when I get a migraine or if I just need to sleep for an extended period of time( I don't sleep much). He said it would take him 2 weeks to build it, I think it was over 6 months, but it's really quite beautiful.

At the moment? messy. I'm creating a new storyline/world and I have butcher paper all over the place.

Couch. Got my MS on my left, a lamp, my iPod dock, and maybe a soda on the right.

Very comfy!

My office looks like a hurricane blew through it from all the paper all over the place. My laptop's on a long table, the printer's on a small filing cabinet that's got nothing remotely writing-related in it. Along with my laptop there's a file organizer stuffed with manila folders holding my notes for various WIPs. I've got my reference books (dictionary, thesaurus, Character naming sourcebook, and Strunk & White's), a bottle of Windex, the wireless router, three coffee cups - each about 1/2 full of pens, a small CD holder, a blue bucket (It's my son's - I don't know why it's here), a stack of music CDs, a Penzey's catalog (best. spices. ever), a New York Times desk calendar that hasn't had a page torn off since March, an a pile of Post-It notepads.

There's also the stereo - a huge monstrosity that I've had forever, my bookcase holding all my research stuff, another (larger) bookcase holding my non-work-related books. The closet has a built in bookcase - which is also stuffed with non-research books. I also have a small (about knee high) curio cabinet that holds all of my penguins and part of my bottle collection - the rest of the bottles are on display here and there throughout the room.

It's a mess, I can never find anything when I need it, but it's all mine...

My writing area *looks* like a normal couch with notebooks, a jump drive, my DS Lite and water bottle strewn over it. However, in actuality its a magical dragon that flies me to wondrous lands for a few hours every day. . . I'm tired.

My office at work looks like a Mexican pawn shop. There are empty computer boxes piled everywhere - on top of the filing cabinet, forming "tables" for both of the printers and a lovely little ledge next to my desk which is stacked with storyboard pages desperately in need of filing. My desk has 2 document holders and an overstuffed inbox, iPod speakers, wireless mouse, about a dozen packs of Post-It notes, a phone, Treo, a collection of toys from the 80's including a Strawberry Shortcake doll, Hello Kitty figurine, Rubik's cube and Chewbacca who is missing an arm, all of which are gifts from my staff. The bulletin board facing me is two sets of calendars, my jury duty notice, a red Second Place ribbon from the office Foosball tournament and a Christmas photo of my coordinator sitting on the lap of Hunky Santa at the Beverly Connection Mall last Christmas.

At home? My laptop on the dining room table.

No wonder I get more done at the office!

I'm not one of those people who can work anywhere -- I have to have my own space. My office is a converted kitchen on the top floor of our house -- the previous owners used to sleep missionaries in their house, and had turned half of the top floor of the house into a large dorm room. We ripped out all remnants of the kitchen, slapped some paint on the walls, threw a rug on the floor, and brought in a desk, some bookshelves and a daybed from IKEA, and there you have it.

You can see a pic of it, if you're so inclined, right here, over on my blog.

What you can't tell is how small it really is -- the entire room is only about eight by sixteen. The bookshelf is only inches away from the back of my chair, crammed with all the books I need for whatever I'm researching, along with a few shelves of the slipcased collection of the The Complete EC Comics, and a shelf containing all my fountain pens and inks (I must admit to still taking my notes my hand).

You can see in the pic the row of PostIt notes I use for my random bits of information, stuck across the front of the small shelf on top of the desk. The desk shelf contains my Chicago Manual of Style, my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Stephen King's On Writing, the first four sets of Complete Peanuts, and a really fancy stamp collecting box my wife gave to me, and which I use to hold stuff I need for correspondence, like stamps, cards, sealing wax, matches, and so on. There's a phone on the wall, and a printer/fax just out of your view.

On the walls are mostly Irving-related materials for the moment, including an Irving autograph from 1857, an old whiskey ad with showing Irving meeting Daniel Webster (!), and, off to one side, a poster for Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. I've also got a framed note from Neil Gaiman, and copies of my reviews from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press hanging up. What can I say? I'm a hoarder.

It's a bit tidier than normal -- I'm between projects at the moment -- but I'm actually usually pretty good about keeping things organized even as I work. Once I start making piles, I'm sunk....

I did a Nerdery Tour awhile back on my blog. Here's my writing space: here

You can see a pic of it, if you're so inclined, right here, over on my blog.

Click to expand...

That is so neat it's scaring me a little. Please tell me you throw bits of paper around occassionally.

I don't have a pic, but this is how it feels on any given day...

IdiotsRUs said:

That is so neat it's scaring me a little. Please tell me you throw bits of paper around occassionally.

Click to expand...

Ha! Actually, I'm pretty good about keeping it uncluttered. Generally it might have a book or two thrown across the top, and my notes stacked off to one side, but I'm fairly good at keeping it organized. If I start making a mess, I'll never find ANYTHING!

Usually I get the messiest with my row of Post It notes, which can be several rows deep....

In the dining room on my iBook with no music, no TV, just a fish tank.

The chair's not real comfy, either. That's how I keep my edge.

Read the description of Bathilda Bagshot's house in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pare it down to Muggle trash, and park a computer in one dusty corner. I just ignore stuff a lot.

I like to sit cross-legged on the floor with my laptop in my--here's a stretch--lap. Otherwise, I recently found that the adirondack (in my neck of the woods they are called muskokas) is the perfect shape to sit in with a laptop and write. I don't really have a writing area... I do, but I don't use it. I sit in chairs throughout the house, or on the floor. I'm not a writing area type of person. I'm sure my desk wouldn't recognize me if I stepped on it.

Corner office.

No, literally, my desk faces the corner of the room. Which is really just a recessed little alcove between two hallways. Bathroom's behind me.

I commandeered the sun room, which is actually the nicest room in the house. Three walls are windows, and my desk is in one corner overlooking a huge old jasmine bush and an umbrella tree full of tree frogs. The only bad part is that a previous resident painted the walls sort of a peachy salmon, and we've never bothered to change it. It grows on you after awhile, I suppose.
Kind of like a fungus. Which, this being Florida, probably is literally growing somewhere in the house.

My writing room looks surprisingly like the Barnes and Noble cafe....maybe that's because it IS the Barnes and Noble cafe

A corner of the dining room-- angled desk that's very messy because everyone else dumps stuff on it.

Laser printer at one end, then inkjet all-in-one printer beside it-- USB hub for all my devices, Pocket PC in cradle, Palm TX in cradle, Cthulhu lamp behind them. After the Palm come the dual monitors for my desktop (tower's UNDER the desk) and my laptop's on the desk in front of the inkjet printer.

Yes I'm a geek.