I need help conceptualizing a writing space

[Devora]

I've come to a possible conclusion that one of the major reasons i'm struggling with writing is that i don't have the optimal enviroment to write in. I live in a place where i don't have much privacy/solitude and i can't make my own room for writing. I have no space for a desk, and all i have is pretty much a laptop, my bed, or a couch (where people come in and out of the place). I'm not sure if libraries or coffee shops are an option because I'd have to drive quite a distance, possibly pay for parking, and get roped into spending money.

i'm not sure what my options are. Advice and suggestions are welcome.

 

[pmmg]

I hear that. I wrote some of my last novels sitting in my car at the library cause their was no other useful way to assure i would be alone and left that way.

My options currently are stay at work or stay up late and wait till everyone goes to bed. Which i wait for every night.

I have not found a solution to this since i gave up my ‘man cave’ room when my son was born. The library worked for me for a good while. But i stayed in my car and just used their wifi.

 

[Penpilot]

IMHO, the environment doesn't necessarily matter. The routine is what matters.

I used to goto the library regularly to write. In my mind I wasn't allowed to leave for a set time. During that time, I could do anything I wanted. I could surf the net or whatever, but I wrote. I did this on a regular schedule. My current novel, I wrote a lot of it in the mall food court or at a McDonalds. I would go there for a tea and muffin, and I'd write. I did this on a regular schedule. The novel before that... sorry, I don't want this come off as anything more than we can write in any situation. We just have to believe we can instead of getting distracted by finding the perfect situation. My second to last novel, I wrote most of it typing with one hand in the hospital, because I had to hold my Dad's hand with the other during his dialysis treatments. It was on a regular schedule.

For many years I spun my wheels because I got caught up looking for the perfect situation, the perfect writing program, the perfect time, the perfect mood, the perfect idea, the perfect whatever. In truth the perfect place is wherever you're at. The perfect time is now.

Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club during his lunch breaks.

 

[Finchbearer]

Could you make your bedroom a more inviting space to be in if it isn’t already? I write in bed all the time, it’s currently where I get the most peace. Tidiness is key for me, a nice lamp, ambience is important…

 

[Prince of Spires]

I agree with Penpilot in that it isn't so much the space as it is the mindset.

I do most of my writing on my laptop on a comfortable chair in the livingroom. I write evenings while my wife is awake, and either watching TV or doing her own thing. Just tell people you're writing and they should mostly leave you alone, apart from the occasional question.

If you've got some room in your bedroom, then you could look at getting a comfortable chair in there for writing, or just a small desk. A simple computer desk could fit in pretty much any corner. No need for a lot of space. Another option is to look for noise canceling headphones, if you want to write in the livingroom but ambient noise is an issue.

I also get a bit of writing done at work. I try to start 15 minutes early to get some writing done and take 15 minutes during lunch to do the same. Might not sound like much, but I can get 200 words written in 15 minutes. Which might not sound like a lot, but it would give me 80.000 words in a year if I'd be consistent (15*2*200*200 = 80.000), which is a novel, give or take a bit.

All that to say that it's not the desk, it's the mindset.

 

[Karlin]

Will writing outside work for you? A picnic table somewhere? Depends on the climate, I suppose.
Personally, I have space, but I still go to a coffee shop sometimes to write.

 

[pmmg]

Check Palahniuk may have written during his lunch breaks, but I bet he also had lunch breaks where he had good reason to believe there would be no interruptions, which seems to be the one common thing everyone is saying.

First rule to a good write space: Leave me alone.

To take it a little further...

To even start writing, my mind has to go through a routine or process. So...I need to know no one will be coming to interrupt me, or I will have to do it all again. (For me, I just wait till everyone goes to bed). Any space where that can happen could be a write space for me, if I have my PC with me...and on rare occasions, something else.

To enhance that, removing distractions is also important. No TV, No internet... No internet is the hard one, of course. But one way to get the productivity up is to decide there will be none. No surfing, no popping into your favorite writers site, no researching, no thesaurus....turn it all off and write it ugly. Just set a place holder and do the research when you are goofing off at work (I usually go a step further, and done off the lights as well and write in the dark).

Have a routine to it. Try to write in the same space, with the beverage ready, and all the other stuff you feel you need already situated.

Stick to the routine....do it every night.

Set small expectations...for me, I only agree to do one sentence a night. After that, I can stop if I want. One sentence is not much.

And its best if you come in with the next scene already somewhat painted in your head.


However, knowing no one else is coming to interrupt me is first and foremost. No space in my house or at work works for this unless its after hours.


But it is true. For a while there, I had bought myself an AC adapter for the cigarette lighter in my car. I would sit in it with my notebook propped up against the steering wheel, and sit in the library parking lot and do some writing. There were just too many distractions elsewhere. Even inside the facility for me. I would do this again, if people schedules changed at my house. I have no where else to go. But the library does not matter much. Could have been any parking lot. The library was convenient cause I could borrow their wifi, and the doors were open if I had reason to go inside.

 

[skip.knox]

Options
1. get up early
2. stay up late
3. leave and work somewhere else

As long as you have young 'uns, that's probably the whole list. My household was fairly noisy and prone to interruption for many years. Unexpectedly, for this new father, was that the baby months were actually quieter. It gets noisier when they become mobile. There just won't be much private time until they're around ten--earlier for some, later for others.

So the best approach for now is to find a way to work with the noise. I vividly recall talking with my professor in grad school about how difficult it was to work on my thesis and have two little kids. He sympathized, but he also noted that David Herlihy (noted medieval historian) wrote his most important books with eight kids in the house. I was properly chastised.

FWIW, I wrote my first novel while still working. I carried a pocket notebook with me all the time. I "wrote" at lunch hour, at breaks, even in the bathroom. Often this was nothing more than notes, but it kept me engaged with the story and characters, and gave me some sense of progress. When I could snag a few minutes, I'd type up whatever in the notebook was worth weaving into the actual story. Be sure to keep off-site backups; these are times of great distraction and failures of concentration. The notebook suggestion is especially useful when you can't take any of the three options listed above.

 

[Pegzy]

I was trying to imagine what I would do in your place.
I love plants to I'll keep a pot plant in a place I can see from my bed/couch.
I'll put a nice picture on the wall I generally look at when I write.
I will mark out my writing time and see if I can ask people not to drop by during that period. Hard if you share a room.
I will take my laptop to a public space that doesn't involve paying - a park, a bench under a tree - again if the weather is fine. If you have to drive far to get to a library, you can't be in a city. So finding an outdoor space where you can have peace for one hour might be possible.
Sorry if none of this hits the mark.

 

[Mad Swede]

Writing this as a retired army officer I'd say that you first need to learn to focus on your writing. As an officer I learnt how to read and write orders and reports in any situation. Lying behind rocks when under fire, in the back of APC bouncing across a ploughed field, on a night flight in a C-130, contour flying in helicopter, crouched under a bush in a tropical thunderstorm trying to keep my paper dry. Night or day, I wrote. And I wrote because I had to. I learnt that you can write anywhere at all, at any time, with any amount of noise and commotion around you - but that you must concentrate.

These days I apply that discipline when writing stories. A snazzy laptop, a good chair, a desk and quiet room of my own are a luxury. It helps to set aside a fixed time each day when I sit down to write. But none of these things are essential, I can write without them.

 

[skip.knox]

>none of these things are essential
Exactly this. To which I would add that all and any and everything becomes an obstacle the moment you regard them as necessary. I learned the same lesson as the Mad Swede, though my tutors were far less bellicose.

 

[L.L. Maurizi]

I would have the same issue. I'm one of those who can only write in an environment i'm comfortable. I wouldn't be able to maintain a routine, if writing became more challenging that it needs to be for me.

If you're like me, I second those who suggested to find a quiet place outside of your house, like a library, or yeah even your car.
Unless you need absolute silence, you can try also parks, or other semi-quiet environments. Even if you don't have wifi, you can still write and use your phone for potential research.

 

[Finchbearer]

Writing this as a retired army officer I'd say that you first need to learn to focus on your writing. As an officer I learnt how to read and write orders and reports in any situation. Lying behind rocks when under fire, in the back of APC bouncing across a ploughed field, on a night flight in a C-130, contour flying in helicopter, crouched under a bush in a tropical thunderstorm trying to keep my paper dry. Night or day, I wrote. And I wrote because I had to. I learnt that you can write anywhere at all, at any time, with any amount of noise and commotion around you - but that you must concentrate.

These days I apply that discipline when writing stories. A snazzy laptop, a good chair, a desk and quiet room of my own are a luxury. It helps to set aside a fixed time each day when I sit down to write. But none of these things are essential, I can write without them.

But…assuming we’re not all from a military background, some people are highly affected by their environment, especially with a creative task.

 

[Mad Swede]

But…assuming we’re not all from a military background, some people are highly affected by their environment, especially with a creative task.

You've missed my point. It's about learning to ignore the environment around you in order to concentrate on the task in front of you. It does take practice, and it is an essential skill in most workplaces.

 

[skip.knox]

I get the point, but the counterpoint is that not everyone is equally adept in all things. Some people struggle to ignore the environment around them. Some people find it impossible to do so. Assuming the OP is one of the latter, probably the helpful thing would be to hear from people who have similar struggles and how they have tried to cope.

To take a modest example, I find it impossible to write while others around me are talking. If it's lots of people--like at the student union or similar--that's not a problem, but when it's a single voice, or a loud voice from a crowd, I get distracted. This extends to not listening to music that has lyrics. One choice would be to learn to ignore the distraction. This might take ... oh, I dunno, months? Years?

Or I could make use of headphones to screen out the distraction, and compile a playlist consisting of instrumentals. That works for me. It might well not work for the OP; sometimes, you're not allowed to ignore distractions, for example when the distractions are your own young children.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, as the poet said; a piece of wisdom that means remembering that not only do the strokes vary, but also that there are many different folks.

 

[Mad Swede]

I get the point, but the counterpoint is that not everyone is equally adept in all things. Some people struggle to ignore the environment around them. Some people find it impossible to do so. Assuming the OP is one of the latter, probably the helpful thing would be to hear from people who have similar struggles and how they have tried to cope.

Writing this as someone who is severely dyslexic. When I was young I wanted silence around me when I tried to read or write, I thought it was the only way I could concentrate. Then I got called up and spent the next few years learning that you can concentrate on things no matter what sort of mayhem is going on around you. You have to focus, you have to learn to shut it all out.

My very personal view is that this is all about how much you want to succeed. I wanted to prove that I could do it, that my dyslexia was no hindrance to doing a job I loved. So I learnt how to focus, learnt how to make myself write comprehensible texts no matter what. And I've taken that with me into my story writing. Yes, I'm exhausted when I finished writing for the day. But I can do it - and I have to do it, because I can't always choose when or where I am able to write.

As for Devora , I'd say that this is when you find out how badly you really want to write. If you're that keen, that driven, you'll find a way to write no matter where you are or what is going on around you.

 

[Ban]

I've never written good, worthwhile prose in a noisy environment, so I don't think that's a luxury to ask for in creative pursuits. If the noise around you drowns out the narrator inside, it's a little hard to listen to them Try out some noise-cancelling headphones. As for where to write? Anywhere you can. As long as the noise is low and the thoughts are present, a story can be written, even if the process is slowed down. Of course environmental features can greatly aid in writing, but I agree with the folks above that that's ultimately unnecessary.

 

[Finchbearer]

The rhetoric that ‘you have to just be more disciplined’ undermines the OP’s struggle. At the end of the day, we are all different, and clearly the environment is the sticking point here.

 

[Mad Swede]

The rhetoric that ‘you have to just be more disciplined’ undermines the OP’s struggle. At the end of the day, we are all different, and clearly the environment is the sticking point here.

No it doesn't. Writing is about self-discipline, certainly when you get to the point of having a deadline to meet irrespective of whether that is a time by which the orders must go out or whether it is a contractual publishers deadline by when your manuscript has got to be in. Learning that self-discipline is hard, very hard. But it can be done - and doing so is largely about personal motivation. It's like everything else we do as writers - it's all about practice.

Looked at another way, in some ways that sort of self-disciplined writing focus is the opposite of what we aim for with mindfulness. Both are useful skills - and both need practice, they don't happen by themselves.

 

[skip.knox]

Devora, you spoke of possible conclusions. Do you think there may be other factors at work here? Also, of what does the struggling consist?

I'm asking not to get answers but to suggest you consider the questions internally. For example, it might be that you are struggling not so much with writing in general as with a particular story. You might be struggling with writing in general, but the environment is only one factor. Or, you might be struggling right now, but circumstances might change in a month. Or a week. Or a year. *sigh* Anyway, I'm just suggesting you examine all the sloughs of despair. <smile>

There have been an number of suggestions put forward here. Consider trying them all. Some may work only a little. Some may prove impossible (or intolerable). Keep in mind that what works or doesn't work today might work or not work tomorrow, so keep all tools to hand. Change is certain.