Where we write - Workspace pics - Here's mine post yours

oakbark · Dec 13, 2013

The objective of this thread is to show fellow writers what your favorite writing spot looks like and how it might be set up.

Some people can write at Starbucks, others need a retreat, yet others go to bed with their laptop, or have a closet retrofitted to a blockbuster producing cubicle.

So, here is my current space. It's a small room in the rented cabin where I live. I have found I work best with less clutter.

Bad office chair

I have also migrated from a pretty nice-looking office chair to my current setups- a plastic chair with cushions and a free-rolling Pilates ball. The office chair sucked and wasn't built for long shifts. It would make you feel like you do on a 12 hour flight, in a really bad seat.

Awesome $20 ball.

I highly recommend you try a ball. Not a ball seat (where the ball itself is static) but just a Pilates ball on which you can bounce and roll and stretch when you get frustrated. Good for the body and good for productivity.

Don't inflate it rock hard. get one which is roughly the same height as your desk (about 30 inches?). When you sit on it, you want it to compress about 25% which provides room for your legs and offers adequate stability.

So, let's see where you write! [keep images under 400x400 pixels]

Wicked · Dec 13, 2013

I envy the tidy work space.
It would seem I thrive in chaos and clutter.

The view from my keyboard: (It's an old picture. There is less blank wall space, now.)

Newer: nevermind. Thumbnail is not working

I draw here too, even though there is a perfectly good drafting table down in the bug room.

ZachJPayne · Dec 13, 2013

I sit with my back against the foot of the bed for support, and pull the computer in. It's uncomfortable as hell, but it somewhat resembles a desk, which works for me.

Also, if I'm feeling social, I can carry everything out to the living room, and sit on the floor against the couch.

MookyMcD · Dec 13, 2013

My bad

Old Hack · Dec 13, 2013

Ahem.

Let me remind you that we have a maximum image size of 400 x 400 pixels here, and a strictly-enforced "no hotlinking" rule.

Some of you might like to edit your pictures before the room mods arrive and clomp all over you.

measure_in_love · Dec 13, 2013

I don't have any pictures, but I am enjoying this thread!

As for me, I write wherever is most comfortable at the time. When the house is quiet, and no one is home, I like to sit at a specific spot at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee. Otherwise, I usually am found with my laptop on my bed. Sometimes I also get creative in where I write in little nooks of my house haha.

jjdebenedictis · Dec 13, 2013

I will not take a photo, because y'all don't need to see my crumbs and candy wrappers.

But imagine: I have a black desk about the size of a small pillow. The shellac I put on it has peeled away on the spot where the computer mouse skitters, and even the bullet-proof paint that Ikea put there originally has started to pucker up under the onslaught of me and my trusty mouse's web-surfing.

To one side of my filthy, filthy laptop is a little plastic lamp I fished out of a garbage bin and got working again. (Yes, I did wash it. It's only the laptop that never gets washed.) The stickers that fell off my Rubik's Cube have been stuck to the lamp's base, and I wired a bit of decorative glass I got in Venice to the lamp's upright with a bag tie.

To other side of the aforementioned filthy laptop is a CD that I use as a coaster for my tea mug. Tucked behind it is a jar of pens and a few paper towels for tea mopping emergencies.

Beside my desk is a small wooden shelf, also from Ikea. You can imagine the type I'm talking about--they kind of look like re-purposed shipping pallets? The bottom shelf contains books and, for some reason, a roll of toilet paper. The middle shelf contains fewer books and more notebook clutter. The top shelf contains a wild, slippery landscape of scribbled-upon papers and feral clipboards, most of which are lying on top of computer peripherals like my headphones and webcam, so the paper landscape is really quite rugged.

And, rising out of that snow-like paper vista--like an alien monolith or an ancient-yet-gaudy temple--is my Rubik's Cube.

Or as I call it, the Disco Cube, because it's covered in glitter and metallic stickers to make up for the fact the original stickers were--as mentioned--falling off.

Pushingfordream · Dec 13, 2013

First off, I think this thread is awesome. I currently write wherever I am, but I'm thinking about creating a designated workplace.

Ruth2 · Dec 13, 2013

I write in two places-- on the dining room table, which is a big old wooden thing with a dodgy top (it flips up if too much weight is put on one end of it.) It has a ton of junk on it, including two laptops and a pumpkin fondly known as the Pink Hemorrhoid. I also write in bed, with the laptop propped up against my legs.

owlion · Dec 13, 2013

When at home: my desk in my room, usually with a lot of books and notes on the desk in no particular order, plus a water bottle so I don't have to keep getting up to get a drink.
At the moment my desk has other work stuff all over it, so it's getting harder to find the notes I made about plot points.

When not in my room: usually before class starts, or during a very boring lecture (although I only plan stories when out), so on a table. Or, if at home but not able to be in my room, I make notes while sat on the sofa.

amergina · Dec 13, 2013

I'm just going to pop in and drop a link to this FAQ:

FAQ: Don't Hotlink to Images, How to Include Images, and Image Size Info

mrsmig · Dec 13, 2013

No photo either, but I'll make this a writing exercise by describing the space instead.

I have an actual desk in an actual office in my house. However, because our bedroom closet is too small to house both my husband's clothes and mine, he uses the closet in this room. He often comes in to change clothes while I am writing, which can be a distraction - sometimes welcome, sometimes not.

My desk is a cheap piece of prefab junk in a blonde faux wood. It has two drawers on the right-hand side, which are both filled with stuff I mean to sort through one of these days. On the lower right hand corner of the desk is a stack of receipts and other papers, measuring about half an inch. It is this small only because I recently had a filing binge, which tend to occur on a semi-annual basis when the stack has gotten so tall that it threatens to topple over. On the upper right hand corner is a tarnished silver toast rack where we file bills to be paid.

On the left-hand side of the desk is a battered Delirium Tremens beer coaster which almost never holds beer, although hot tea, ice water and the occasional glass of wine have been spotted there. Right now it is occupied by a Seagrams Diet Ginger Ale can (empty).

I do most of my writing at this desk on an aging Toshiba laptop. I have a vertical mouse on a mousepad featuring a quote from Emma Goldman. There are some wall shelves directly in front of me which hold photos, writing magazines and books and some office stuff like a stapler and a tape dispenser. My husband has taped a few pictures to these shelves to inspire me, including a printout of my NaNoWriMo 2013 winner certificate, a picture of the Jackalope from the Pixar short Boundin', and a photo of a corgi in a Superman cape.

There is a window to my left which looks out onto our cul-de-sac. The room is drafty in the wintertime; in fact, right now my ankles are rather cold. Behind me are more shelves. My two completed novels, printed out, hole-punched and neatly filed in red ring binders, hold positions of honor. I sit in a swiveling office chair with black socks fitted over the armrests to hide where the vinyl is cracked and peeling. Its seat has, over the years, become imprinted with the shape of my backside.

So there you have it. Not terribly romantic or inspiring, but it's my favorite room in the house.

oakbark · Dec 13, 2013

Wicked said:
I envy the tidy work space.
It would seem I thrive in chaos and clutter.

The view from my keyboard: (It's an old picture. There is less blank wall space, now.)

Newer: nevermind. Thumbnail is not working

I draw here too, even though there is a perfectly good drafting table down in the bug room.

Yours reminds me of the previous place I lived in. It was a 1 room apartment at a time when I tried my hand a scriptwriting and one wall acted as a giant storyboard. I sort of miss that, just windows all around now.

But, my work speed has improved with less clutter. For now. Maybe it's a cyclic thing? I aim to move summer 2014 so we'll see, maybe I'll bounce back to the zen of many things

For those using imageshack - here's the code you need to resize your images on the fly. This example supplies an image with max 380 pixel size. Bold part is your image file info

Code:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/380xf/[B]206/mycornersi0.jpg[/B]

Filigree · Dec 13, 2013

No pics for security reasons. But I will share that in the room where I do most of my writing and digital art, there is a completely authentic 'Caution: Radiation' sign on the wall behind me.

ETA: I had to look at it again. It actually reads 'Caution: Radiation Area, Authorized Personnel Only'.

Dmbeucler · Dec 14, 2013

Picture.... McDonalds. I have an Alphasmart and I tend to take it out of the house to get my writing done. My desktop computer is in the middle of everything at our house and I have a toddler. So I get out of the house in the evenings and draft, usually someplace I can walk to. A lot of my writing happens at McDonald's or one of the other fast food places near my house.

Author CJ Black · Dec 14, 2013

I converted a spare room in my townhouse for an office. It has a nice door that can firmly be closed. Imagine having an entire wall with nothing but books. And if I keep buying them, I'll need another wall. I have a pre-fab desk (with more books) and one of those metal shelving sets. All my electronics are nearby. To my left is my writing desk (soon to be replaced with more books) where I fill out important paperwork. And there's a nice comfortable chair on the other end of the room. What I'd really like though is one of those old-fashioned roll-top desks. And there are boxes and those plastic set of drawers you can get at Staples. And of course, more books!

Where we write - Workspace pics - Here's mine post yours

oakbark

Wicked

Outcast Rogue

ZachJPayne

Beware: #amQuerying

MookyMcD

I go to eleven

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

measure_in_love

escaping the evil queen's curse

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar

Pushingfordream

Writing about life!

Ruth2

Tam, na Koncu Drevoreda

owlion

Absorbing inspiration from the moon

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

oakbark

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing

Dmbeucler

Author CJ Black

My Skin Is Thick enough, thank you.