Creating a Writing Space

While I love going on adventures and finding beautiful new places to write, I truly believe that all writers should have a dedicated work space. There will be times where the weather is crappy, you have no transport, or it could just be that you can’t be assed getting out of your PJs. Whatever the reason, having your own space is a great idea to make sure that when inspiration hits, you always have somewhere to write.

Your writing space doesn’t have to be huge or fancy, and you certainly don’t have to have a dedicated room. If you’re low on space, something as simple as a small desk in the corner of your favourite room would suffice. The most important thing is to set it up in a way that inspires you and personifies your writing style. If you need a clean, uncluttered space to free up your mind, then set your desk up with only the bare essentials. If however, you are like me and like to work in organised chaos, then go crazy. While the decorating is completely personal, there are a few things I would suggest to get the most out of your space.

Privacy

Ideally your writing space will provide at least a small amount of privacy and be in a low traffic area. You need as few distractions as possible to truly delve into your character’s world. There’s nothing wrong with a distraction now and then (we all deserve the occasional break right?), but there are few things more frustrating to a writer than constantly being pulled out of your fantasy world by distractions from “the real world”

Power

It may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to miss if you use a laptop rather than a desktop: make sure that wherever you set up your desk, there is a power point nearby. You don’t want your laptop going flat right in the middle of a crucial scene where your protagonist is about to get her ass kicked by your antagonist for the first time.

Chair

As writer’s, we tend to skimp on as many things as possibly (it’s the struggling artist in us), and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I whole-heartedly encourage it. There is however, one exception…your chair. As writer’s, we spend a significant amount of time on our tucus, so you will want a comfy chair. Seriously guys, I can’t stress this enough. If you cheap out on a chair, you’ll regret it. It’s going to be pretty hard to write for long periods of time if your ass is throbbing and there’s a shooting pain running up your back. We’re already artists; let’s not increase the torture with a cheap nasty chair we got on special at the local dollar store.

Vision Board

I strongly suggest some sort of vision board above your desk where you can pin pictures of your characters, floor layouts for important buildings in your story, anything that inspires you and keeps you on track. My husband went overboard and created a giant pin board that he covered with pretty material and takes up most of my wall (bless his heart) and I love it! But you certainly don’t have to go to that extreme. I’ve seen some great space saving vision boards on pinterest! One author simply hung a piece of string and used pegs to attach her inspirational images.

Make it Your Own

Once you’ve got the basics, it’s time to decorate. This is the fun part and is completely up to you! You may just put the essentials on your desk and leave it at that if you like the clean modern look. I work best surrounded by beautiful things so I decorated my desk with fairy lights, small little knick-knacks and my zen garden. I love being surrounded by plants and nature when I write so I made sure to surround my desk with lots of big leafy plants as well. You can find plenty of inspiration for desk decorating ideas on youtube and pinterest and I’ve posted a photo of my writing space to give you some ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s your space. As long as it provides a source of inspiration and gets your creative juices flowing, you can’t go wrong!

- K A Rieder