Thursday, March 16, 2017

A Place for My Mind

Plan where you will write*

Work to find a space. Spend at least ten minutes preparing this space, getting everything you need – good lighting, comfort if possible, few distractions, reliable hardware and software and privacy. Get all your supplies together. Create your space and use it.

Today's question is all about WHERE to write. I suppose time and space ARE interconnected, so where and when are just as important as each other. I hope we get to what fairly soon.

The when of my writing has been an interesting question for a while. I have created various 'places' to write over the years. The one that stands out to me was when I created an office with decor and comfy seat and everything. I don't remember writing a word in there. I have tried the variation on that theme several times., usually to no avail. No writing gets done in offices reserved for the purpose.

I wrote I should Have Listened to my cat over 50 days on a TV table in my living room. Fifty days, on a TV table. The time varied a bit, sometime in the evenings, but always whenever I could pull it off, I would write in the morning after 5 am. Always on that TV table.

No, I don't even have a TV table. Instead, I have a kitchen table, a step stool in the den, and I am typing this at the desk we have set up in the dining living room area. It is a nice desk, looking all professional and stuff, and this is literally the first time I have written on it.

In addition, I am writing on my 'new' Dana by AlphaSmart. It is a $25 tool that is basically a rechargeable keyboard, and that is pretty much all it is. It has a nice big screen, and an SD card memory and best of all, it is so light and portable. It is completely distraction free. I don't even bother with proper spelling most of the time, favouring speed and content over format and precision. This allows for a more stream of consciousness type of experience,

So what does this mean for the future? Well, once April comes around, Pam will likely be using this desk for her university courses and I will be back to the table. That is not so bad however because the height is about the same. I may need to steal an extra cushion from another chair though because those things get hard to sit on after a while.

Still, I have the tools I need to get the job done. Now it is just about doing the job. I have an outline to create (in 10 minute chucks), this blog to keep up as I answer the questions in Katharine's book, and a side project I have taken on giving an extended shout out to the 10Min group!

*From Chapter 3 - Creating your space

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