Am I Doing Something Wrong?
This site has all of these cool photos of writers’ workspaces. The photographer writes about the project’s genesis on the site:
There is a powerful aura of creative energy that surrounds Michael Swanwick. I can tell you this with absolute certainty, because I’ve felt it. Some time in late 2008 I got invited to a party at his house, mostly or entirely, I suspect, because he mistook me for someone else. While there I asked if I could see his Hugos, since I knew he had five of them. “Of course!” he said, jovially, and lead me up to his office. This I thought in stunned wonder as my eyes crept across the expanse of it, is a place of great significance and it needs to be seen. It was like I’d cracked open his skull and seen the gears of genius.
Hmmm. Well, I don’t actually have a set place that I write. I write in bars and coffeeshops. I write at the kitchen table sometimes. I write in the livingroom. None of these places seem particularly like a sanctuary. I am more likely to think of a particular type of notebook as my writing area.
I do have an office, as pictured below, but I wouldn’t say it’s VanderMeer Central or anything. Am I the only nomad around these here parts? And what do you think my office space says about me as a writer?
August 6, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Your office kinda looks like my dorm writing space after I trashed it a bit.
August 6, 2009 at 11:48 pm
If I get stuck covering floral, I write standing behind a counter near a bunch of flowers. But generally, I write in my basement, at the computer. I can type. And I make good use of it.
August 7, 2009 at 12:00 am
The old tires and charred wood come in handy, don’t they?
August 7, 2009 at 1:04 am
I actually think it’s probably quite healthy to do the nomad thing – when my writer’s block got overwhelming it also got connected with my study … so I couldn’t set foot in there. So, I moved the study into the ironing room and turned the old study into a guest room. And sometimes I write in the study, sometimes at the kitchen table, sometimes in the lounge room … less frequently in bars :-).
It’s kind of the releash from writing fetishs you talk about in Booklife, right?
August 7, 2009 at 5:08 am
“In Soviet Russia, old factory writes VanderMeer”
Actually, I like the nomad thing too. I aspire one day to reach that level of serenity/detachment. Partly because of my insistence on using an ergonomic keyboard when typing, having the chair set up properly, etc., I’m not currently so free. Writing by hand’s a different matter, tho, and I try to range somewhat afield when doing so.
August 7, 2009 at 8:41 am
Mostly it’s the Long Island Railroad, netbook balanced on my lap. Occasionally snatched moments in the office if I can manage the right headspace, occasionally at home if the siren song of the Xbox is muted.
The train is best though as it’s somewhere without distractions–no TV, no internet, no people I know. I can just shut myself down in a box of music and write.
If only I could get rid of minesweeper my productivity would be great…
August 7, 2009 at 9:31 am
I’m like Jonathan Wood: on the train where no one can find me and the distractions are minimal. Otherwise, it’s the closest Starbucks I can find (it’s doesn’t matter where you are, the internet experience at Starbucks is always the same quality). The couple of times I’ve tried to write at home, up in the “office,” have been dismal, and I finally realized it was the constant reminder of all the things I needed to organize around me that were weighing me down.
I’ve initiated the War Against Clutter; once I win that campaign, I’ll move back in.
August 7, 2009 at 9:33 am
@ Jonathan Wood: Jonathan, I wrote the second half of a novel on Metro-North Railroad, CT to NYC, two hours each way, every day, and it was… Hell. Couldn’t smoke. Couldn’t pace. Wincing, grimacing, and fist-balling all had to be kept to a minimum. PURE HELL.
But if I had a way-cool office like Jeff’s…! Well! Now we’re talking! Yeah baby! The words would be flying! (As it is, I have to write the weekly installment of something this weekend in a Best Western in Massachusetts. Oh, boy.)
I do miss writing in bars, though. Dearly.
August 7, 2009 at 10:31 am
I always write where and when I can. It is not like sitting cross-legged on a Persian carpet with a two-foot long golden pen in your hand is going to make one’s writing any better. Homer was blind after all.
August 7, 2009 at 10:43 am
Like you, it’s more about the notebook, since my first drafts are ink on paper. There’s some weird flow connection between my brain and my hand on the page that a keyboard disrupts. For translating into digital, it’s likely my bedroom/library in the basement, so I can be left alone. Other non-writers don’t seem to grasp that writing cannot be interrupted repeatedly and still be worth reading later.
August 7, 2009 at 10:48 am
I actually think Ye Olde Writing Space can become a crutch. Writers brains get tuned to the fact that writing comes out of YOWS, and when YOWS is not available no writing can be done. Superstitiion, mental cueing… they both play a part. I think nomadism is quite healthy, really, as the mental cueing is tied to the self, rooted in ability and self-confidence. The words come from my head… and so as long as I have my head with me I’m fine, cuz the words are there.
Though, you know, a kickass office with a barrel and spigot ready to release a steady stream of Arrogant Bastard… this would be acceptable. Fresh bagels would be a bonus.
August 7, 2009 at 11:15 am
Niiiice. Drape some old Visqueen over the rafters and that looks a lot like the ancestral Barron manse I spent many a carefree year in as a wee lad.
August 7, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Hah. It says you are a writer no matter the circumstances.
“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. Surrender is not in our creed.”
August 7, 2009 at 1:03 pm
BTW, some of those workspaces are frakkin’ gorgeous. They lack the raw emotion of the VanderMeer space, but I’d take some of them any day of the week.
August 7, 2009 at 2:09 pm
That’s a beautiful picture.
Also, solidarity for nomad writers. Or something. ;)
August 7, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I disagree about Michael Swanick’s creative energy. I was at a party with him in Philadelphia a couple of months ago and found him to be…lacking. Lackluster. And kind of full of himself. Maybe it was just a bad day. No matter, though; the pics are cool anyway.
They say that working-space is a reflection of the creative mind working in it. I think that may be true, but the world’s a-changing, and nomad-ism is becoming more common and relevant. Scribbled-on napkins are the modern reflection?
August 7, 2009 at 3:52 pm
love what you’ve done with the place. don’t change a thing!
August 7, 2009 at 4:53 pm
…was this taken after a particularly intense spurt of creativity? i’d say you manifest your creativity in ways other than writing…..
does ann come into your office very much, or do you do the cleaning here?
peace and love………
August 7, 2009 at 5:06 pm
just had a look through the photos….interesting to contrast the chaos in some spaces and the military precision in others…….
August 7, 2009 at 7:31 pm
That’s actually what I kind of pictured Janice Shriek’s room to look like. Except maybe with a bit more roof on it??
I do think a change of scenery is good for creative stimulation. Some of my favorite sketches were started at the laundromat down the street from me.
August 11, 2009 at 9:52 am
I like the weights in your office. I wish I could get some for mine with the same rustic charm. Then I would probably have muscles on my muscles instead of just limp skin hanging from my wee bones.