Diversions

Who was the author who claimed to lock her office door not to keep the world out but to ensure she stayed inside? I know I'd do well to follow her advice. But my real distractions - if you don’t count food in the kitchen and gunk in the shower stall - aren't outside the room. They're outside the window.

In a black cherry at the bottom of my hill there's a pair of nesting hawks, and to the north – no joke – I can see fifty miles to Mohonk’s Sky Top ridge. But my most recent distractions are the two equine occupants of a small barn on a neighboring eight acres.

When they arrived a few weeks ago, the temperamental pony did her best to evict her full-sized roommate. Ever seen a horse jump backward, hind legs kicking? By now she's adjusted to sharing quarters. When they're let out of the barn every morning, they prance the perimeter of the paddock before settling to graze. There's a black lab working up the nerve to herd them, but so far he's kept a safe distance.

In March the wind sometimes blows like a hurricane on our ridge. The day it whipped a skylight off our roof, the horses were stuck in the barn. I missed them, but resolved to accomplish a fair bit of writing. Until I discovered that by leaning forward in my chair, I could see their noses through the stall windows.

It's hopeless. I’m considering moving my desk to the basement.

I can see why Michael Connelly writes the occasional novel in a windowless room. Why, according to Joanne Palmer in Write Blindfolded, Steven King wrote on a typewriter squeezed between washer and dryer, and Andre Dubus parked his car in a cemetery to write The House of Sand and Fog.

There are certainly alternatives to writing at home. I do like libraries (I recommend Nyack’s). I’ve gotten into the zone on trains, although I once nearly missed my stop at Secaucus Junction. Cafe's sometimes work until I get to know the regulars. (See Best Places to Write/Work in NYC for one writer's recommendations.) But as Clare pointed out, it's spring. The jonquils are ready to bloom. I'm expecting bunnies in the yard any day now.

This time of year, can anyone honestly claim self-discipline? What's your secret? Maybe a sturdy set of window shades.

- Lois

Places For, Not Of, the Imagination

With Travis and his cavalcade of contributors, the WoM have also recently been hashing over the places we've known. Furthering that spirit of geographical exploration, there's an interesting photo series in the Guardian (hat tip to Leigh at Criminal Brief) revealing various Writers' Rooms. Being a genre-licious hack, I'm not familiar with every interviewee, but I was nosy enough to be fascinated by the similarities and differences in the approaches and environments.

In my gadabout way, I'll work anywhere. Just lately, though, as my own self-imposed deadline approaches, I've felt a need to have a more official, segregated area to aid my scattershot focus. Today, we're supposed to have a new dining table and chairs delivered. I'm thrilled, since in a decade we've never had a place big enough for more than a 4-seater, and I do enjoy the hospitable arts.

I've already relocated the old one into a converted sun porch off the living room, (taken the candlesticks, too, since the DR's stripped down to just four walls and anticipation), and I'm working from it now. It's not bad as a beginning, though I think I may need to rearrange slightly for the benefit of my tailbone. There's a matching sun room upstairs which I've also been considering making into a sitting room/office, and which currently holds the final detritus of our move which must get gone soon, no matter what.

Where do you write? Does it need to be filled with inspirations or emptied of distractions? Is its location and organization (or lack of same) important to you?

For the Writer on Your Gift List

If you still have a writer on your list to buy a holiday gift for—or if you’re a writer and you don’t know what to ask for—consider an editor’s desk. Levenger (www.levenger.com) sells a couple that a number of writers and editors I know couldn’t live without.

An editor’s desk is basically a small inclined work surface that looks very much like the top of a lectern. It’s designed to sit on top of your regular desk and hold whatever you’re writing on or in—loose paper, notebook, journal—at a comfortable angle to ease neck strain. A small ledge along the lower edge holds the paper in place, while a back ledge can be used to hold a reference book or two. The editor’s desk can also be used for reading.

While I do most of my actual writing on my computer, I generally prepare my notes and outlines in longhand. I also print out my manuscripts and edit them on paper. If no one in my family took the hint, I’m buying an editor's desk as a gift for myself.