Your Writing Environment (Again)
My desk as of August 2020
I thought I’d tackle another Blaugust Promptapalooza writing cue. Today’s question is “Tell us about your physical creative space, and how it influences your content creation” and the official promoter of this prompt is Krikket over at Nerd Girl Thoughts. Do go check out their very candid thoughts and personal experience on this subject. Because where you sit and create your content is a big factor in the process. Sadly, for practical reasons it is often the one that is most overlooked or neglected due to the realities of life (as Krikket explains in their post). Very few of us have a purpose built studio or specifically designed workspace. Most of us just try to adapt an existing part of our home and make do with that. I have done this in the past, when I was living in a rented flat. The lounge dining table also doubled as a writing desk, as well as a computer workstation. It was a little too high for such purposes and it ruined my posture after a while. The ergonomics of where you sit is not something that should be ignored.
In 2016, having moved, I started using the spare bedroom in the Peril household as an office. I live in a Bungalow and the bedrooms are at the front property. This is a common foible of buildings of this type from the 1930s. It’s a robust, red brick built home with a South facing garden. Consequently, the “office” faces North and is cool in hot weather. The window looks out into a busy tree lined avenue. I wrote in a previous blog post on this subject about how my original plans were “thwarted” by the arrival of my twin granddaughters. At the time I had to share my “creative workspace” with two travel cots. Hence I initially chose a very small desk. However, the twins are now 5 years old and so the travel cots have gone. There is now a single bed in the room, which has a second pull out mattress in the base. I have now expanded “my domain” and got a bigger desk. One that is the right height and has adequate room for me to type or write longhand.
Ignore the cable management and focus on Pliny and Magnus
I like a tidy and organised work space. My desk is laid out in accordance with my needs.I have a single document tray for my paperwork. There’s a headset available for impromptu online chats. It is an analogue model that plugs into a 3.5mm jack. I have an extension cable that ends in a female socket to hand under the monitor stand. There’s an Xbox controller for those games that require one. I have my internet router under my monitor so I can address any issues, should they arise. This model has greatly improved the wireless network in the home but my PC is attached via an ethernet cable. I have my Fire HD 10 to hand and my phone in a wireless charging cradle. Notebooks and pens are available should they be required. I also have an HP printer, copier, scanner next to my desk. I’ve had the same computer chair for 4 years and have already replaced the gas cylinder. It is getting a little worn but I’m reluctant to part with it as it is very comfortable.
When writing I tend to prefer a quiet environment. If I shut the office door and Mrs P does the same in the lounge then neither disturbs the other. Sometimes if I find my attention wandering and I’m spending too much time watching the shenanigans of “punch above his weight man” who lives across the road, or some other example of life’s rich pageant, then I’ll draw the curtains. I’ve recently started getting up earlier in the morning and now try to do the majority of my writing before 11:00AM. Because I am very much at ease with myself when I’m at my desk and I feel it’s a place where I 100% belong, I’ll often get lost in my writing. On the days when the ideas come and I’m invested in the subject I’m writing about, I can be quite productive. Some days when I’m outraged by something I’ve seen on the news or online, my office is a haven of reason to retreat to. Having been self-employed in the past and regularly worked from home, I can effectively compartmentalise my time. If I’m supposed to be writing then there’s no skiving allowed. Gaming (which I do on the same PC) is allotted to specific times of the day and can only be indulged in when all other obligations have been met.
The beer on the desk is a semi-permanent fixture
I consider myself very fortunate to live in a home that has a spare room that I can use in this way. Shit, I think I’m fortunate to even have a home but that’s a subject for a separate blog post that I may tackle at a future date. Simply put I have a decent sized room in my home that I can appropriate and use simply to write, record podcasts (which I haven’t done for a while), play video games and watch pointless but amusing YouTube videos. One a month or so, my granddaughters come to stay for a night or two and I can’t use “the office” from 8:00 PM for about twelve hours. It’s hardly an inconvenience. Many of my fellow bloggers and content creators do not enjoy this luxury. Families, especially young children take up space. Therefore there may not physically be a room or area to claim for indulging your artistic muse. Or there may be a corner or snug but it needs to be cleared out or maintained before it can be used. Try doing that after pulling a 12 hour shift. And if you rent, then you may find there are restrictions in your leasing arrangement.
Often, the space we'd like to have for our creative endeavours and the one we actually use are not the same thing. However, despite the reality of the situation many bloggers, podcasters, streamers, vloggers and online creators manage to regularly produce good quality material without the benefit of a designated office or bespoke studio. They get by the best way they can and it could be argued that having to create on the fly, guerilla style, is why they create such good material. But I won’t belabor that point because I’m sure many would most certainly like a suitable “den”. I also should add that I’m lucky that Mrs P hasn’t seen fit to use “the office “ as her “sewing room”, “Kabaddi Dojo” or some such similar creative undertaking. If that were the case, I’d be back to writing via the lounge table, on a laptop. How would I be able to see the birds on Mrs Coltart’s roof?
