The Guardian has for some time been doing a series on writers’ rooms. The most recent piece featured Michael Morpurgo.
“For many years, I wrote on our bed in the house. But there were complaints about ink on the sheets, dirty feet on the bed…”
I discovered the series by way of Joanna Penn’s blog, The Creative Penn. She showed a picture of her writing room and listed her writing tools.
I thought maybe we could create a chain of these posts. If you continue the chain, please leave a link in the comments so we can follow to your writing space.
Here’s where I sit–looking in. My desk is under there somewhere.
Here’s where I sit–looking out. Now you can actually see my desk. 
My writing tools:
- a candle
- my sony vaio laptop that will fit in my purse
- my printer
- my digital camera
- pens and pencils
- index cards
- notes everywhere
- books
sparkling water with lime
21 Comments
July 7, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Beautiful!
July 7, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Aha! Now I get it; surround yourself with order and beauty and your writing will reflect the same. So, next time I can’t get the words right, I’ll blame it on the sliding paperstacks, four empty tea cups, and cookie crumbs. I’m so relieved.
July 7, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I have a copy of a great book titled The Writer’s desk. It’s got great photos of various famous writers sitting at their desks with some discussion of their writing tools. Kind in inspirational when you see that some writers just sit at a completely barren desk in a completely empty room and write longhand on a yellow pad while some writers (I think Edwidge Danticat, but don’t quote me because I don’t have the book with me right now) sit on their countertops with their laptops in their laps. And there is everything in between. Some of the desks even look much like yours. I’m not telling what mine looks like. I’ll let you imagine.
July 8, 2009 at 8:04 am
Barb-thank you so much for reminding me about The Writer’s Desk. I can’t believe I’d forgotten all about it–another great thing about comments!
I’ve had so much fun looking at these desks and reading what the writers said about themselves.
I just did a post on the book, kind of a companion post to yesterday’s.
July 7, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Thanks, Erin.
Linda, I’m laughing. I was afraid someone would ask how I could work in such clutter. I’m glad you see order. I guess it’s all relative.
July 7, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I wanted to a post like this – I’ll try to see if I can get around to taking pics and linking to you!
Your writing tools – a candle!
How do you manage on the tiny laptop, do you like it?
July 7, 2009 at 10:33 pm
oh, i have to take pictures tomorrow and post them!
like jennifer, i’ve wanted to do a blog about this. i did take one pic of my desk right when i started writing, but now i’ve left my desktop in the dust (quite literally, i’m afraid), and am always on my notebook. my writing area has spread.
i’m about to move in a few weeks (i’m dreading the packing–an entire house. bleh…), so i’m hoping to find a new writing space in that house..
i love pictures of writers and their spaces. oh, and libraries. so cool to see….
jennifer–i have an hp mini and i adore it. it does everything and the keyboard is still fairly large. but it’s the size of a comp book. absolutely wonderful!!
July 8, 2009 at 8:10 am
Jennifer and Eden- I look forward to seeing your writing spaces. When you get your posts up, please leave us a link here.
Jennifer, I love my small laptop–it’s my third one this size. It doesn’t take up much room on my desk, and I can slide it in my purse if I need to take it with me. I agree with Eden that the keyboard is plenty large. I’ve never had a problem with it.
July 13, 2009 at 12:37 am
I just finished my ‘writing spaces’ post. I put it on my other blog because it doesn’t get much love… I tend to neglect it.
Anyway, check it out!
Nothing phenomenal as I had to take a corner of one of the kid’s room for it. In our new house, I’ll have a spot with all my shelves in one room and a real desk and all. I hope that it will look something like yours, Cynthia! That’s the goal. But for now, I have what I have. Hey, at least the writing gets done.
July 8, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’m just getting caught up on all of your posts. I love that room. I think you should add one more picture where you can see the whole room. You are missing all the books and windows on the other side. The view from your desk.
July 8, 2009 at 1:57 pm
It’s funny you mention that. I noticed that this morning and took a couple of pictures of what I see from my desk–a post for tomorrow or later this week.
July 8, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I am fortunate enough to have two writing rooms.
Right now I am on the east side of the Cascade mountains, in north central Washington. It’s my kitchen table. My tools? My beat-up laptop, a vase of flowers (I MUST have flowers!) candles; for my current writing project–old journals, a copy of Flannery O’Connor, and a photo album from Nepal. And yes, you do see a pair of binoculars . . . outside my window, there are two baby red tail hawks about to leave the nest.
–peggy
July 9, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Here’s the link to view Peggy’s writing room: catching days-one of Peggy's writing rooms
Love the pictures, Peggy. Especially seeing your handwriting in your journals and your view. Thanks for sharing!
July 10, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Hi there
Writing spaces reflect so much of who we are. I’m working on a new writing space for myself at the moment. It’s going to take awhile, but the end result will hopefully give me as much pleasure as yours does. Thanks for sharing
July 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Nice to hear from you, Sharon! It is fascinating what our writing spaces reflect about us. It would probably be revealing for me if I could look at mine objectively. I would love to know how you are going about preparing your writing space–what you feel must be there…
Hope to hear from you again!
July 12, 2009 at 10:56 am
Wonderful and timely article in today’s New York Times on writers’ rooms!
“THE novelist Roxana Robinson, who lives in a Classic 8 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, can reel off many of the unusual ways that writers have found quiet and solitude in which to practice their craft….”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/realestate/12habi.html?_r=1&hpw.
She “has an inviting book-lined study, not to be confused with her writing room.” Apparently there are too many distractions in her study for her to write!
The little slide show that she narrates also has some great shots of her book shelves.
July 27, 2009 at 11:33 am
[...] PPS: That’s a picture of my desk, where all the magic happens. Imagine some rain today, and a little Remy curled up behind me, and you can picture where I am. Check out Cynthia’s blog for a little series on where writers do their thing. [...]
July 29, 2009 at 8:15 am
Snailwriter-thanks again. I went to your blog to see the picture of your desk, but again I couldn’t find it. Will you add a link here for us?
August 22, 2009 at 11:41 am
Yay! Sarah, the night writer, has made a video of her writing room. Check it out: http://thenightwriter.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/a-room-of-my-own.
August 24, 2009 at 5:52 am
This is really great! I love how you have shown the photos of your writing room and listed your writing tools. I will have to add the list of writing tools to my post. Thanks for sharing the link to my writing room video!
August 24, 2009 at 9:53 am
Thanks for your comment, Sarah. The video was a very cool touch. Please come back and leave us a link if you add the list of your writing tools.