Becoming the best starts with the desk, so what desk do you use?

Julieavi

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The more I write, the more I realize I need to write.

Writing on the sofa in front of the TV whilst eating homemade fruitcake can only get you so far - even if it is delicious homemade fruitcake.

So, what's a gal to do?

Buy a desk and place it far away from the TV, of course.

My questions to you are:
  • Was getting a desk worth it?
  • What do you look for in a desk?
  • What desk do you own?

By the way, at the moment I'm reading The Overstory - has anyone read it? I feel like I'm the only one and I love the writing style.

Thanks
 

Drascus

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I have a cheap $100 desk from Fred Meyer. The expensive part of my setup is my Microsoft Surface Pro. The desk is in a room with my wife's desk and our reference bookshelf.

Most importantly, the room is remote in the house, has a door that closes, and blackout curtains on the window. If I want to I can put on noise cancelling headphones and make the world vanish so that I can easily travel to another one.

I do need a better chair though. My butt hurts after a 4 hour writing session in the crappy office chair I'm using.
 

mccardey

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I loved The Overstory - it is still with me. Not keen on fruitcake. Can write at any table, as long as there are not people anywhere.

Welcome to AW :Sun:
 

Abbeysroadlesstaken

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I use the same desk I used in high school. I love the roll out shelf for a keyboard. It has a side compartment for a printer and shelves underneath. I'm into arts and crafts so I have an UNGODLY collection of different papers and cardstocks. I wish it had doors so I could shut the clutter in a cave and I didn't have to see it.
 

lizmonster

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My desk is about 20 years old now, and is living comfortably in the room over my garage.

I write on a laptop that rests on a slightly squishy surface sometimes occupied by a cat. :)
 

lonestarlibrarian

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I like going to the Collin Street Bakery and buying their fruitcake seconds--- the ones that aren't pretty enough to sell at full price, but taste just as good. :)

My desk-- it's a U-shaped monster that I've had for about 10 years. We bought it at an auction that sells office furniture from places that go out of business, so it was an insanely expensive desk for about $100. DH bought himself a matching one. If we ever move, the people who buy our house are going to find they're the new owners of two awesome new desks. :)

With all the Covid stuff happening, and needing to crisis-school, we've set up the kids' computer on the credenza behind me, and sometimes we'll share a bench. But it's nice to have all my peripherals--- flatbed scanner, printer, etc--- up on top of the shelves/cabinets, and my Wacom tablet on the pull-out slider down below--- out of the way.

Unfortunately, it's so tall that it blocks the light in the room, so I've got two nice lamps to help make it not be so gloomy.
 

Julieavi

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Thank you for your replies and for welcoming me to the forum!

My plan is to aim for as high quality as I can get so that it lasts for the next decade, there's nothing I hate more than poorly made furniture.

I suppose the next step is: where from?
 

Introversion

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My desk is a folding card table in the bedroom. It doesn’t collapse under my computer monitor and keyboard, and that’s pretty much all I ask of it. :ROFL:
 

veinglory

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My office desk is the $99 Ikea table with a $50 keyboard tray. My non-salaried writing is done on my lap, nature's desk.
 

Bufty

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My computer set up is on a five foot (20" deep)table top inserted between a wardrobe and the wall in a small spare bedroom. Old PC parts are underneath, plus sound system and an old PC. Above are shelves with books and paraphernalia.

On the desk my desk top PC (which I assembled) is to my left. My keyboard is on a sliding tray under the desk, and my Predator 34" monitor is in front of me. To the right is vacant space.

Chair is a cheap office managerial chair - comfy and practical.
 

Chris P

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I usually like to have a dedicated place to write. Usually. My current desk is a modular thing from Container Store, the Elfa brand. I like the nice modern look.

Although, when the mood hits me I can write anywhere: the patio, in a park, wherever. I once cranked out an entire short story in a cheap hotel room on the little note pad they put next to the phone. I was desperate and inspired!
 

Introversion

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Hmm, perhaps I should hold my expectations back a bit

You should get what works for you. If having a solid, nice desk will inspire you, do it.

FWIW, I have my cheap-arse card-table solution not because I’m against solid, nice furniture, but because for a decade I’ve procrastinated about building a desk and shelves in my office nook where I work from home, and where today there’s only room for my work laptop. ;)

Also, I’ll add that lack of a better desk is way, way down on my list of reasons why I don’t write more. :tongue
 
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veinglory

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Make sure you are careful about ergonomics. Whether premium or cheap and cheerful, you do not want a set up that causes repetitive strain injury, eye strain etc.
 

mccardey

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A thing I do love about the desk I use most (IKEA, and I think under $100) is that I can scribble notes on the actual top of it, and wipe them off later. Since I tend to scribble on my desks regardless, being able to wipe the scribbles off later is a definite bonus.
 

cmhbob

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I'm using my dad's old desk from his study. Huge oak thing, mission style. Got my laptop front and center, and the second monitor on the left.
 

Ellis Clover

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I don't have a TV to distract me, but my house can get very cold so writing on the couch or in bed under a pile of blankets is the norm for me during winter :) Otherwise, I write at the dining table. It's a beautiful mid-century extendable that I got for $30 on Gumtree and it gives me great pleasure to use it, as I eat most of my meals... on the couch or in bed. (I promise I'm not a total sloth.) Personally, I reckon a comfortable chair (or couch or bed) is the most important thing.
 

Drascus

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Hmm, perhaps I should hold my expectations back a bit

Give yourself permission to get things that will make you happy as long as you can afford them! That MS Surface is way more machine than I really need to write, but it makes me happy and I like using it.

The trick is to not hinge your success on the item. I don't write on a consistent basis because I have a Surface. I don't write well because I have a Surface. I do those things or not because those are goals I have and I'm working hard on them. The Surface is just a luxury that I enjoy.

Armed with that, get a desk that is hewn cold from a root of Yggdrasil. :D
 

jennontheisland

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I have my laptop on a breakfast in bed tray. Sometimes it's on the couch with me, sometimes the bed. Sometimes I flatten the legs and it sits on my desk (as far as I can tell my brain only needs a desk to do math homework, everything else is done semi-reclined), sometimes it's on the coffee table. Sometimes I sit cross legged on the floor and the tray is the desk.
 

Chase

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Eons ago in grad school, I started notes for a dissertation and first words of new short stories on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer perched on an Ethan Allen roll top desk :e2BIC:.

Computers and desks got smaller and cheaper until I now edit on a laptop on a lapdesk.
 

Julieavi

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Thank you everyone for your replies, they've all been helpful. I've reigned in the dreams of having a $1000 desk to a more modest one but what do you guys think about the first one of these, it's simple which is what I need.

Although, having said that, last night I did my best work in weeks sitting on the floor. I have arthritis though so I can't make that my norm.

I haven't worked out how to quote yet but I know exactly what Veinglory means about ergonomics, a lot of us in the modern age don't pay attention to it enough
 
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Kerry56

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I built my desk a few years ago to fit in the corner of my room. I write on my computer, which sits in a space I designed for it under the top on the left side. Most of the desk is ash, but the drawer fronts are teak, and I made the handles out of maple, which I ebonized.

Since it has a 90 degree top, I inset walnut dovetails into the top, as both a decorative touch and an extra support for the miter joint there.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5aq0r1xwm8mzdl5/1ca113553a3e609e5e65c7c9c475d3d68b56bcb8.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nwrc8252cpb2ad/d602b62add4991250cc58b67a90180dee3c834ad.jpg?dl=0

I hope the pictures show up. They aren't great, but show what it looked like not long after I finished it.
 
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milotry

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I have an L-shaped desk that cost less than £100, but does the job. I have my PC and monitor on one side, and then I use the other side for my laptop (which is what I write on, not my PC) and/or drawing/painting/sewing. For writing, though, I usually use a small fold out desk on my bed that I think cost around £25. It's probably terrible for my back, but at least it's cosy (and I didn't have particularly good posture in the first place!).

I'd definitely recommend L-shaped desks if you're a multitasker or just someone with several different hobbies that require deskspace. My PC takes up so much room that if I didn't have the additional space, it would make things pretty difficult.
 
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sandree

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Just got the Alex desk from Ikea. Before that I was using my son's old childhood desk. Loving this - it's dark blue and has two big drawers!!
 
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neandermagnon

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I don't have a desk. My laptop is perched on a small coffee table that cost £9 from Ikea. My laptop used to move around to different places but due to issues with my wifi and the service provider refusing to acknowledge the problem (yes, Plusnet I'm looking at you :rant: ) it's permanently situated on this coffee table and attached to the modem via an ethernet cable, which kind of defeats the object of having a laptop, but hey. If I really need to, I can move the laptop + cable to a different coffee table in the same room (also Ikea, a bit bigger, cost £14).

My coffee table is next to a really comfy chair though. This chair is one of a pair that was abandoned when my parents moved into their house. The people who were moving out said they were going to come back and get them the next day but never did. When I moved back to the UK I didn't have much furniture so my parents said I could have these chairs as they didn't really want them. The other day a friend said she thought they might be antique. They're made of solid wood and a design I've not seen in chairs before. Anyway they're comfy to sit on the normal way or cross legged (like how kids in primary schools sit for assembly) so I rather like them. They're a bit scruffy. If they do have any antique value they'd need a lot of fixing up. Though I'm inclined to think that if they did have any value they wouldn't have been abandoned. But hey, I can dream.

I have a home working setup on what used to be my dining table (also from Ikea), all set up in accordance with my employer's health and safety policy. (Been working from home for the whole of the lockdown - key worker in the financial sector.) It's not a huge dining table - my work computer + 2 screens takes up the whole thing. So that's being sort of desk-like at the moment.