Creating a Writing Space

I've never been one to cater to the idea of having a defined space where I go to do my writing. I do have a desk in a corner of the dining room where I've established my home office. This, I had decided somewhere along the line, was a necessity. Sort of like having a cubicle in a corporate office.

But when it comes to my personal writing I never really had a set space.

Introducing: The Second Bedroom

Right now I'm sitting in a room that I've begun fixing up, with the intention for it to moonlight as a writing and reading space. It's our second bedroom that we've completely neglected since we moved in here a year ago.

This room was our own personal dumping ground for the stuff we might want to save for a house someday, or didn't quite want to part with, or didn't have display space or storage for. When two adults in their thirties move in together there is bound to be a lot of duplicate stuff and excess crap.

Well all that crap went into the second bedroom. My living room furniture included.

So this weekend I decided I'd had enough of this ugly space. I had tried to use it once or twice last week as a quiet escape to work on my book. And it was a fail. The energy was just...bad. How can you feel good (or inspired) when surrounded by mess?

Letting Go Of Old Dreams

I had this silly dream of someday buying myself a fluffy white chair and ottoman to go in this room, and I'd envision myself sinking into the cushions with a good book and a cat or two. And then I'd get a simple little wooden writing desk to set by the window where I could work on my latest novel.

I'd do this, I told myself, with the proceeds from my first book or from some windfall of freelance work that might fall from the sky. But then I took a look at the calendar (I'm not getting any younger and the financial windfall was nowhere to be seen), and I realized that I have a good space available. So why not put it to use now?

So I cleaned out the junk, I turned an old dresser into a display table for picture frames, I hung artwork that meant something to me on the wall above the sofa. I put a box sign on an adjacent wall about living your dreams, and I hung a pretty painting of a misty forest above the newly displayed picture frames.

And to the side, by the window, I hung up a plaque with the Ten Commandments. I had given it to my grandmother years ago and, as happens in life, it found its way back to me upon her death. It makes me think of her.

Presenting: My Writing Space

So there we have it. A newly created space that makes me smile when I walk in.

And I write.

I look up from time to time and I see pictures of people I love. I see a painting my best friend made for me of my cat watching me from heaven, a painting my husband made for me of a city skyline, and a painting of two intertwined black and white cats that I bought in Barcelona on our honeymoon.

And by golly, I like this idea of creating a writing space. It feels good in here.

And I've learned that the writing space doesn't have to look like whatever it was you had pictured in your head. After all, I'm still sitting on my nine year old, stained, battered, kitty trodden couch. But what it does have to do is feel good. And that's all you need.

Do you have a writing space?