sacred space--what's in yours?

HeronW · Jan 19, 2008

What's in your favorite writing place that makes you comfortable, that stirs your imagination, that gives you vivid memories or ideas?

Sure we're writers, like gunslingers, we can 'work' anywhere--on the subway, in an office waiting room, in the bathroom, but that best spot--what's there?

Top to bottom:
A clock edged in purple, redone with butterfly stickers marks time next to a black and white photo of a castle in Slovenia.

A three-tier bookshelf sitting on my table holds: top shelf: a selection of miniature copper dragons, one of wax, one of plastic, 4 bears, a mouse of clay, a lion, 2 tigers, a cat of quartz, 4 dragon-handled fantasy blades, one sword of same, and a laminated copy of my first ever sold short story.

Mid-shelf has a basket of sea rocks full of holes, notebooks, pens, and a wooden bowl with tarot cards, reading glasses, and orange sugarless gum.

Bottom shelf has the old laptop, various notes, and usually one or both cats fighting over the blanket seat on the side.

What do these do for me? Give my eyes a rest from the screen, make me smile, offer various natural surfaces to touch to break from the plastic keys.

They're all waiting for me, listening, non-judgemental, an audience, a cheering section, a future full of places where cats and dragons and wierd stones with holes in them can be in the next tale, one just like this...

althrasher · Jan 19, 2008

The balcony of the Solarium in the Student Union.

2 Floor tall windows looking out onto campus, various trees and bushes on the second floor, waterfalls, sometimes crappy music playing (which is why I bring my iPod,) people milling all around, and a coffee shop connected to it.

shakeysix · Jan 19, 2008

old reference books. a shelf of really old ones. don't know why.

there is a window by my desk. a small maple tree just outside the window. a couple of owls visit the tree from time to time and they keep me company at night. a yardfull of kids--10 years to- maybe 14 years old-- live across the street. summmer nights i like to watch them ride bikes and play flashlight tag. in the winter they make snowball forts. the window is very important--s6

Claudia Gray · Jan 19, 2008

I have a large, soft, dark green "chair and a half" in the corner of my living room. There's a tall lamp with a red shade nearby, and a little table where I can put a glass of water and the remote for the stereo. A leather ottoman lets me prop my feet up so the laptop can actually sit in the lap, as intended. A few feet to the left is one of my bookshelves. Atop that are some candles, which I sometimes light while working at night, and a piece of art I bought from a street vendor a couple years ago, this very evocative picture of a woman standing atop a small pedestal, hands outflung, near a sunset.

I don't face the window -- no point. I live in New York, and my view is a wall. But I like the snug and cozy feeling.

Matera the Mad · Jan 19, 2008

A three-foot square space hacked out of neglected squalor in which I sit with my nose to the monitor and my fingers poised in the icy air over my keyboard.

I do a lot of the preparatory thinking under a heap of blankets on the other side of the room.

Joycecwilliams · Jan 19, 2008

Well I write in my bedroom on my laptop. Usually I lay on the bed with my laptop propped on my knees.

I like to write in quiet, no TV, Radio, etc. I can hear the clock tick as I write, and it is a comforting sound.

I love photography and often take pictures at sunrise or sunset... because the sun hits the buildings, landscape etc.. at a certain angle and it casts a beautiful glow. I painted my bedroom in a hue that resembles this glow, and it is extremely creative for me.

My pug Pork Chop is always on the bed with me when I write. Although I have 2 other pugs and a beagle, they tend to not want to stay put. Porky never leaves my side.

My creative ideas come to me when I am driving alone. I get a plethera of ideas. My problem is getting to drive alone.

shakeysix · Jan 20, 2008

my cat, scout, is usually perched on the computer desk watching the birds out the window. there is a feeder in the tree and in the daytime she enjoys watching them, bless her bloodthirsty heart. at night the situation is reversed. the owls are big enough to give a cat a hassle.

tonight the moon is so bright that it is casting tree shadows on the blind. kind of spooky because i finished "haunting of hill house" this evening. for the 4th or 5th time but it is still the spookiest ghost story i have ever read. and it is cold--very very cold. --s6

Kerr · Jan 20, 2008

Freezing is the word, breath-taking cold, but we've installed a small propane heater behind my desk, and a circulating fan in the doorway to this West-facing back room which is my office, and now the warmest room in the house. He built this room below eye level, thinking people would need to sit to appreciate it. I do, everyday.

There are two glass panels sealed into the wall that I face, taken from sliding glass doors. They sit lengthwise and through them I watch the different groups of birds take turns at the feeders. Farther out there is a pond, a grassy wetland, then all is ringed with trees. I sit with a shelf of reference books to my left, a bookcase off to the right, and pictures of family around. Back here, it's just me, my books and the people I love, though the whole house has slowly become an extension of this. I long for a laptop so that I can roam.

Zelenka · Jan 20, 2008

I use my laptop on my battered old couch, which is so crappy that I have it covered with throws to hide it. Beside me, perched on the armrest, I have my notebooks for my WIPs, couple of reference books I'm using, and a plush toy pumpkin. Within easy reach, I have stacks of books for research, and I have a set of little pink speakers to plug the iPod into so I can work to music. Oh, and a nice gas fire right in front of me. Very important in Scotland

DamaNegra · Jan 20, 2008

I write on a desk in my bedroom. On the desk I have a half-dead bamboo, a cactus that refuses to grow, some pens, my stereo, mi cell phone (for playing snake when I need cheap amusement) and a lamp. To my left, there are two shelfs with more books than they were meant to handle. To my right, there's just a wall that will be turned into another bookshelf in the near future. Boring, not particularly stirring of my creativity, but it's all I've got.

shakeysix · Jan 20, 2008

it is warming up a little. just over 32*. i will need to take the dog for a walk. i am still in my pj's. i need to switch to my writing uniform: gray sweatshirt that says franklin university, red plaid shirt, long johns, bluejeans, thick tie dyed sox, chuck taylors. does anyone else have a writing uniform? to walk the dog i will put on boots and a nicer sweater.--s6

sacred space--what's in yours?

HeronW

Down Under Fan

althrasher

Prodigal Muser

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

Claudia Gray

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Joycecwilliams

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

Kerr

I vant to bite you

Zelenka

Going home!

DamaNegra

Mexican on the loose!

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy