Over the last couple of days, I found myself embroiled in a writer’s biggest challenge. No, it wasn’t sentence structure or plot or writing a query letter. I was trying to decide where to put my desk.
Yes, I have a desk, and I’ve been using it. But I think I got it in my head that if I could just find the PERFECT place for the desk, words would suddenly flow as springs of water and I’d be able to complete 10 novels in one week. Obviously, thought I, what’s holding me back from a writing output that is both prolific and dazzling, is my desk isn’t in the right room.
This caused a dilemma because the Palatial Horvath Abode, although indeed Palatial, is not exactly desk-friendly. Or maybe I should say it does not have the desk space of my dreams. I’d love my desk to be in a large, well-lit room with plenty of windows and lots of space for papers and pens and files. But the Palatial Horvath Abode does not have many large, bright rooms, and the room currently housing my desk seems to attract everything from boxes to unused exercise equipment. It’s a little cramped.
To top it off, my cats have split the house between them. I have a cat who lives only in the bedroom half of the house. I have a cat who lives only in the living room half of the house. I have two cats who can, with caution, move between the territories. Since the room with my desk is in the middle, you’d think it would be neutral, like Switzerland. Instead, all of the cats try to be in the little room with me at the same time, which means it often resembles the Battle of Waterloo, not Zurich. Nothing draws your concentration away from a romantic love scene faster than a good cat fight.
So I stewed about moving my desk. I prowled the house with a tape measure and studied bookcases and wondered how long it will take to shift 2000 books into different rooms. I drew up floor plans and thought and mulled and planned. I was wondering if I should make cardboard models.
Then I realized that I have a laptop and a netbook and a wireless router, so basically I can write pretty much anywhere…I…want…
Huh.
I left the desk where it was. And, um, wrote.
Good for you!!!! 🙂 I have dreams of turning the empty nest of the oldest in to an office some day. But first I have to stop using it as a storage room. sigh
I have 2 out of my 3 cats that won’t be in the same room most of the time and like yours have the bed room territory and living room territory. The 3rd doesn’t give a rats you know what about the other 2 and does what he wants LOL
@Doris: It’s comforting to know that other cats are as strange as mine! LOL When the two combatants are at opposite ends of the house calling for me, it gets a little old. 😀
I created my office, but the room still gets used as a storage room. I just have this vision of the perfect place for my desk – but I’ll probably need another house first. HAHAHAHA