Pages

Tuesday 16 August 2011

A Writer's Space - Picking your Space

If you haven't already read the first article you can find it here

So once again we explore this physical space that we occupy as we write. The author talks about past clients and her own experiences in various homes she's owned. The difference in how in one home she had a massive office with a stunning view that she had selected with the intent of making it her writing space. Then when she went into write her book the space was just too over powering. In the end she repurposed a closet and turned it in to a writing space.

Honestly I found this chapter to be a lot of rehashing what was discussed in the first chapter. It just focused more heavily on the idea of distractions. In my own circumstances unless I am looking for a place to write outside of the home, which I am not, I have fairly limited options. There is my office/bedroom, our living room, or the back-deck. A quick late addition as I edit this recently we have been suffering from a horrible heat wave and the deck has served as a wonderful place to write into the wee hours of the morning Until the heat wave I’d never really considered using it. I have no plans to move and certainly won't be doing so for the sake of a better writing space.

One idea that did come from this chapter was the idea that I am not writing a book, but that I'm writing a draft. Apparently someone the author was working with was so paralyzed by the overwhelming thought of writing a book that she was unable to do so. However once she started to view it as a draft she was able make head way with the project. Disappointingly the author doesn't go on to say how successful the person was because of this new thought process. So we never get to find out if she was able to transform the draft into a book. That fact leaves me with the impression that she wasn’t success, I still think the idea however is valid.

Lessons:

Some writing spots are more congenial than others. Find your best spot; or create it, if it doesn't exist. Move furniture around, reclaim some space, or do whatever else it takes.

To do:

1. Be willing to write. No writing space will serve you if you don’t write.
2. Go on a vision quest and locate the place in your home where you will write.
3. Test your writing space, by writing in it
4. Keep writing there.

That sums up Chapter 2 of the book. I wasn’t overly impressed and was grateful that the chapter was short. There was only a single idea that I took from the chapter as a whole and that was the idea of looking at your work as a Draft rather than as a Book. Otherwise I guess you could sum the whole chapter up with the following statement; Writer’s Write!

No comments: