FINDING A SPACE

Earlier in the month, we talked about finding somewhere to write.

There’s something I wrote in my “NaNoWriMo – Meeting the challenge” book

https://gerald-hornsby.com/nanowrimo-2020

Here’s another complaint I hear – “I don’t have anywhere to write. I only have a small house / apartment / igloo”. We’ve all seen Stephen King’s writing room, and Ian Rankin’s upstairs office space. How much easier would it be to write if I had a centrally heated, air-conditioned, coffee-machine-equipped office with a view of Mont Blanc or the River Rhine or the South African Veldt or the soaring peaks of Glencoe?

Well, maybe a little, but you’re just finding excuses. Again. You don’t need a special space to write. Yes, you would do well to be on your own without interruptions from pets or family. But you can write with your laptop on your … lap. You can write in the middle of an office with headphones on. You can write on a train.

The most prolific period of my career was when I sat at a tiny flatpack desk facing a blank white wall. You can write in the kitchen whilst you’re waiting for your pasta water to boil, or your coffee machine to bubble, or even whilst you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. You don’t need an office. You don’t need a ‘special space’. What you need to do is write words. Get to it!

I remember an episode of “Grand Designs”, where a man wanted to build a house in France with an office “with a great view” so “I can wrote that novel I’ve always wanted to write.”

He built that house, and he really did have a study which had a wonderful view across a valley, including green fields and a village in the distance. So, he must have polished off that novel in no time?

He didn’t.

What he did do was write a book about how to build a house in France. The novel didn’t get written. So it wasn’t the lack of a special room that was stopping him – it was himself!.

You could say: “But Gerald, you’ve got a nice study with a view into countryside – it’s all right for you to preach!”

True.

But in my defence, it is a spare bedroom, converted into a study. AND writing is my business. AND my partner writes on the dining table. She’s a full-time author, too.

In conclusion: you can write wherever you want.

Just write.