Does your writing workspace inspire you? Is it a place where you can shut out distractions? A creative fortress where you can dream up and run with ideas?
From backyard sheds to cabins in the wilderness, check out where 9 famous writers go to do their work.
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Pollan’s book A Place Of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams is the story of how he built a tiny writing hut for himself in the woods behind his Connecticut house. As he writes,
“A room of one’s own: Is there anybody who hasn’t at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn’t turned those soft words over until they’d assumed a habitable shape? What they propose, to anyone who admits them into the space of a daydream, is a place of solitude a few steps off the beaten track of everyday life.”
“I have two desks in my office — one’s “analog” and one’s “digital.” The analog desk has nothing but markers, pens, pencils, paper, and newspaper. Nothing electronic is allowed on the desk — this is how I keep myself off Twitter, etc. This is where most of my work is born. The digital desk has my laptop, my monitor, my scanner, my Wacom tablet, and a MIDI keyboard controller for if I want to record any music. (Like a lot of writers, I’m a wannabe musician.) This is where I edit, publish, etc.”
“Many writers swear by location-boosted cognition. I include myself in this category (the above picture is from the mini-library I built in my new house to support my deep work.)
This shouldn’t be surprising. Writers make their living almost entirely based on the quality of their thoughts, so they tend to care a lot about maximizing what they get out of their brain.”
“I call it the “Mystery Box.”
“Because it is a box. From which radiates — well, who the fuck knows? It’s me. Sitting in it. Every day. A mask over my head with a question mark embroidered upon it. Hammering out words, stories, characters, ideas, all the expected nonsense. Writers exude mysteries. Questions. Puzzles wrapped in enigmas wrapped in crippling-self-doubt and also, sometimes, ham.”
“The desktop is so crowded that, when I’m writing, I have to take them off the desk until I finish the book. On the walls of my office are framed covers of my books and sayings that I love. One favorite, since I work very late: ‘What hath night to do with sleep?’
I had my desk made by some artisans about 25 years ago. They chose the colors and book titles—I love it.”
“My home “office” – more like a Zen garden with a desktop than an office. The framed quote is from world-famous cook Bobby Flay: ‘Take risks and you’ll get the payoffs. Learn from your mistakes until you succeed. It’s that simple.’
I design a workplace like I design any space: by association and positive constraints. First, I want positive emotional associations with each object within my visual field…Second, I limit misbehavior by limiting options. Notice that I have no shelves. This discourages accumulating papers and encourages both elimination and immediate digital note-taking.”
“I had the gazebo built about 15 years ago, and go through phases of using it, and then I’ll abandon it for 5 years, then rediscover it with delight. I love walking to the bottom of the garden, and settling down to write.
Nothing ever happens down there. I can look out of the window and some wildlife will occasionally look back, but mostly it’s just trees, and they are only so interesting for so long, so I get back to writing, very happily.”
“I should imagine my writing room is very much as anyone would have envisaged it – if they could’ve been arsed: the wheel-scoured floorboards, the scaled-up desk, the council block through the greasy windowpane, the London map stapled to the blind.
I can’t throw anything away. Anything. I’m going to end up like one of those old weirdos who lives in a network of tunnels burrowed through trash – yet I do not fear this.”
“I have worked in this room for 30 years. It is on the first floor, overlooking the tops of two prunus trees, which flower before they leaf, so that in a lucky year there can be both snow and pink blossoms on bare branches. The room itself has always been painted the same color, a bright, almost Chinese, yellow, giving the effect of sunlight even on the darkest day.
The room is usually very untidy: like many writers, I aspire to be a clean-desk person, but admit the daily reality is very dirty. So I have to walk carefully as I enter my study; but am always happy to be here.”
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