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Topic: Please Step Away from the Desk
| Author | Message |
| GGG | Posted – 1/25/2008 12:53:35 PM | show profile "Just make yourself sit down at your desk and write. It's as simple as that." This is the advice a fellow writer gave me when I complained about getting distracted, unmotivated, burned-out. It didn't help. What did help was finally thinking outside the box and taking my laptop to a cafe. Then the park. Then to my kitchen table. Then to a tea house...you get the idea. Suddenly, I enjoy writing again! Seems I'm not a desk girl. My method bothered Mrs. Advise Giver. I was dubbed un-disciplined and a "recreational" writer, thanks to my rebellion against The Desk. Whatever, lady. I'm sure there are MANY more unconventional writers out there who aren't confined to a desk all the live-long day. So, please, back me up. Does anyone else break free from the desk but still remain productive??? ------ Check out the blog! www.girlgoesglobal.com |
| catlondon | Posted – 1/25/2008 1:23:43 PM | show profile Phooey to your friend. Hemingway wrote standing up. |
| Righter | Posted – 1/25/2008 1:32:54 PM | show profile Most days I write on my dining room table, even though I do have a desk. I prefer being by my balcony and having my dog snoring at my side. I've also made some great progress at cafes, bookshops, restaurants, the library, etc. A change of scenery helps stimulate the brain in a different way from what it's accustomed to. Don't listen to the advice giver. Different things work for different people. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 1/25/2008 6:03:22 PM | show profile Definitely step away from the desk. I have to be physically comfortable -- but I have enjoyed getting away to the lake, free of distractions. |
| Marie | Posted – 1/25/2008 7:04:17 PM | show profile Definitely. When I'm stuck, I go for a walk, and then the ideas and the transitions just come forth. Just have a notebook to jot them down. Writing is scary and nerve-wracking, and you often come up with your best ideas and phrases when you're not writing, i.e., when you're relaxed. |
| jcpatterson | Posted – 1/25/2008 7:28:08 PM | show profile Sounds like Mrs. Giver once heard that advice herself and took it too literally. Yes, there is a truth to the idea that one skill critical to success in writing (and many other things) is the ability to apply one's posterior to a chair and get the work done. Discipline is important. It is problematic if a writer finds his/herself not able to write at all until the laundry is done or the garden weeded or the pencils sharpened, and this to-do list is used as an excuse to keep from having to face the work. But this has nothing to do with the actual furniture you are using. Nothing says you are not working if you are not sitting in a berber-coated cubicle behind a grey Steelcase desk. There are many threads on this forum that detail the downsides to being a writer, but the upside is definitely the fact that our desk chair can be a lounge chair on the beach or an upturned tackle bucket beside the fishing hole or the couch beside a roaring fire. |
| hawkmail | Posted – 1/25/2008 11:53:36 PM | show profile I have a lovely shared office space but some days I prefer to sit on my bed in sweatpants with my laptop and my coffee. It's crazy that I sometimes feel guilty about this, because I'm definitely working and not procrastinating. Isn't part of the fun of working for yourself the ability to work wherever you want? It's perfectly OK not to be a desk girl! Do whatever works for you. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 1/26/2008 3:18:01 PM | show profile Yeah, I think the main focus of that advice was the "just sit down and write" part. Not the desk part. I always just start typing my notes. |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/26/2008 8:49:27 PM | show profile Agree, the desk part wasn't the point. The "just write" was. Seems like you took the advice! Good for you. Doesnt' matter where you write, just that you figure out what works for you and just do it. |
| GGG | Posted – 1/26/2008 10:07:40 PM | show profile Whew! Thanks all...so relieved. Although I'll fully admit the "just write" part is still tough sometimes, at least we writers have the luxury of doing our work anywhere! Like here, laying on the couch with the flu. :-( |
| jkdscribe | Posted – 1/27/2008 6:13:25 PM | show profile Interesting piece on famous writers' quirks http://members.gcronline.com/writersstudio/Summer%202007.pdf |
| Jerose | Posted – 1/27/2008 11:26:41 PM | show profile I wish I could break away from my desk right now. I have a 2,000 word rewrite due at 8 am tomorrow and my friggin hotel mate won't shut up! If it weren't 15 degrees here, I'd be sitting in the park. |
| Jerose | Posted – 1/27/2008 11:26:44 PM | show profile I wish I could break away from my desk right now. I have a 2,000 word rewrite due at 8 am tomorrow and my friggin hotel mate won't shut up! If it weren't 15 degrees here, I'd be sitting in the park. |
| DQ102 | Posted – 1/28/2008 11:36:10 AM | show profile Hi GGG, I don't think it matters where you write as long as you write. I have to stay chained to my desk at home because I do a lot of interviews and have to be by the phone. But if you are free to leave your apartment and work best in a cafe-setting, in a park, in a boat, on horseback, whatever, then that's where you should work. |
| darkfire | Posted – 1/30/2008 12:47:43 PM | show profile Thomas Wolfe used to write on top of his refrigerator while standing (tall fellow). Creativity comes from writers, not desks. I do my best work when I'm comfortable - wherever that may be. Write where you want! |
| Yam | Posted – 1/30/2008 2:09:06 PM | show profile I've been lucky enough to find two local cafes that have free wireless and I try to go to one each day. At the very least I head there in the mornings to respond to/send email with sources for an hour two. If I don't make a point to do it my inbox gets unmanageable. These two cafes also have enough ambient noise that I can conduct phone interviews without irritating other patrons. Though I never heard her say it, apparently a former j-school professor advised that at least in your first year of freelancing you should never make your own cup of coffee at home. Point being: You should give yourself a reason to get yourself out of the house each morning. It may seem like a waste of time/productivity, but in my case it has made me much, much more productive. And less of a hermit, too! |
