I had a great weekend with my hubby in Iowa. It's amazing what a little TLC does for the both of us. I came back renewed and committed to work on and send in some writing for an April 27 writing deadline.On our Sunday morning sleep-in, I even dreamed about the pieces I would write. I had woken to the soft rain at the workaday hour of six a.m. but knew there would be hot tea and apple fritters waiting for me later so I just turned over and gave in to more sleep. Luxury!
So now I'm going to set up a better writing space in my room. Look what I found at The Happy Booker:
From The Guardian Unlimited, a feature on the writing rooms of some of Britain's beloved authors. This one is A.S. Byatt's (whose book Possession: A Romance is extraordinary). Byatt explains,
"Inside is a purposeful disorder. Two of the walls are books, floor to ceiling. There are also, owing to irresistible on-line ordering, tunnels and towers of books all over the floor. The books on the desk are those I'm using for the current chapter - Kynaston's wonderful history of the City of London, some books on Rye, some books on Art Nouveau, Hofmannsthal, Millicent Garrett Fawcett. I write fiction by hand, hence the absence of a computer in the picture. I write better since I put the computer in a separate office - partly at least because I am less tempted to play Freecell when I can't think of a sentence. Carmen Callil made the printed sign for me when she was publisher of Chatto. ANTONIA WRITING TIME. It still works against distraction and procrastination. I try to write all morning, and read and think in the afternoons."
Even if I only clear off the old table and set out some yellow notepads in my own room, I'm inspired by these writers' spaces.
2 comments:
For a few years I bought a calendar that had photographs of writing rooms. The most spartan was Susan Sontag, who seemed to have removed all decor from the room. It was her, a notebook, some cigarettes, and a desk (positioned oddly facing the emptiness of the room, I think). The funniest was a shot of Stephen King at work in a legal notebook. In the background was a computer so old it may have spit out punchcards.
-cK
I've seen that Stephen King at-home photo! And I remember learning to write the programs for those punchcards, too. I remember my Fortran computer teacher telling me I could open the world now. I could not! I think I only mastered a few simple loops, the equivalent of making a title boldfaced or italic.
Post a Comment