The Creation Station

Today I was able to find an hour to sit down and bust out another 900ish words on the book today after lunch.  I came to a pretty good stopping stop and then decided it was time to go out and take care of a couple adultish responsibilities.  Groceries, book a hotel for an upcoming wedding, pre-order Skyrim for Xbox One (What?  I said ish).

Today when I sat down at my desk I noticed something.  It was a whole lot easier to sit down and get going than in past attempts.  I wrote the other day how on day one of the novel I wrote a less than impressive 84 words and on day two it jumped up into the 900s almost instantly.  There are several reasons for the boost in productivity.  One that I actually thought about as I was driving around taking care of those important adult responsibilities was my workspace.

Being a writer has some cool advantages that other jobs don’t have.  If a writer wanted to wake up at 6 am, make breakfast, put on a nice shirt, and pair of pants before sitting down at a fancy desk for work he can.  He can also totally decide to roll out of bed, pour a beer over his Cheerio’s and write a couple chapters in his underwear and Chewbacca snuggie at the kitchen table.  Both are completely viable options.

Part of the big planning period for this project was coming up with where I was going to do my writing.  I have a pretty nice desk that was covered in crap from the last couple months.  Ammo boxes, unread Ducks Unlimited Magazines, a guide to beginning a bicycle commuting advocacy group, and tons of old bills (that are paid and up to date I might add) covered the surface.  I decided that eventually I should probably get around to cleaning it up. 

Well on Monday when I kicked off the writing with the 84 disappointing words, I just so happened to be attempting to write from my overstuffed chair in the living room while my girlfriend played Nintendo 64.  Sitting on a comfy chair while watching my girlfriend controlling a sassy bird and a silly bear in her quest to thwart a witch was definitely distracting. 

The next day I finally cleaned up the desk and set up my workspace, and voila.  Magic happened.  Having a nice clean desk that was organized with what I needed was a big help.  Today it continued to be a nice writing experience.  That is what got me thinking today about what other writers have as a writing set up.

I got on the internet and managed to keep myself from getting too distracted and started looking around for different setups writers have.

A couple workspaces I particularly liked were Chuck Wendig’swriting shed and Neil Gaiman’s Garden office.  This was when I started going down a rabbit hole on the internet.  I found myself researching tiny houses that could be easily set up as writing offices, and wondering how much money I’d need to make from that first big fancy book deal to afford one of them.   I guess a positive way to look at it would be finding new long-term goals.

I really dig the idea of having a little space separate from the house to work.  The desk in my house is working great for now, but something just sounds cool about walking to my back yard office to create awesome stories and feel important and stuff. 

Maybe one day.  For now, however, I’m going to be completely happy typing away on my setup at home.  I’ve got plenty of surface area to set up my iPad next to my laptop, and have a couple notebooks with ideas open as well.  I’ve got a silly caricature of myself on the wall staring at me to keep the mood light, a Yoda picture telling me the “do or do not” line to keep me on track, an old Troll Knight that I got when I was six years old to keep me nostalgic, and a jackelope to keep me from taking myself too seriously.  Pretty good stuff to both keep me productive and in a good mood for writing.  Keeping the area clean is going to be important, but sticking with the writing schedule I’ve made should help with that.

What are some of your favorite examples of creative workspaces that were posted?  Got any cool ideas for one that wasn’t shown?  I’m particularly a fan of Wendig’s writing shed.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.