Writer's Home Office

 

I'm super blessed to be a writer and able to make a living at my craft. But, even if writing is your avocation, an inspirational office is critical or else, the dreaded, writer's block.

Some elements I've found that help me immensely are - 

PLOTTING/BRAINSTORMING

I got a giant full board of sheetrock (4x12') and painted it with chalkboard paint and mounted it securely to the wall. I then hung a remote control basket with chalk and erase beside it. I can plot out scenes, erase, draw lines to show associations, leave notes and deadlines on the edges. 

chalkboard paint 

I can sit at my desk writing, look over at the wall and recall the details. I can spend the afternoon stepping back, erasing, changing, adding possible plot elements in parentheses to contemplate, use different colored chalk for different characters. 

This paint can also be placed on a smooth wall or a door. 

CREATIVE INSPIRATION

This can be as simple as a poster of Tahiti, photos of family on the wall, beautiful art, or other creative hobbies, like a keyboard, a handpan drum, or in my case an easel and a dresser filled with art supplies so I can oil paint.  Try to keep more than one creative hobby in the room and images of goals. 

ATMOSPHERE

I added a scent diffuser and use essential oil mixes that suit the very thing I'm writing about. Right now? I'm a writing a western, so I use outlaw scent that includes leather, tobacco, and whiskey scents mixed. 

I added a lot of plants around the window so I have a sense of life and outdoors since I'm a very outdoorsy gal. I also have my desk positioned to look out my picture window at the mountain. And, as most writers do, I am inspired by the characters that walk down the street and imagine their stories.

Music is always a big must as well. I have found tremendous background music options on YouTube. I often play cafe music, but right now - western cowboy instrumentals. 

ZOOM MEETING BACKDROP

I've had photos and props behind me when I do zoom meetings, but honestly I think it shows a fussy mind more than it shows my attitude. I am an artist too, so I chose to do a giant 3D white daisy mural behind my desk. 

I've only just begun to put it down, but I love the gigantic size and colorless background so I can pop against it as the only color. It also shows a grandness and artist style that I am. 

Here's an update - worked on background. Need to refine flowers more and it's complete!

I can't express how amazing it is to walk into this office and see that impactful wall. It's an amazing zoom meeting background in which any color I wear goes - POP!  Some offices look like generic anonymous offices, but this one is embracing tons of family photos on the wall, plants, a picture window looking at a nearby mountain, a gigantic chalkboard to account for things, and this wall that is sooooo me. It can be no one else's office!

You can also get all kinds of fabric/plastic backgrounds on Amazon so you look like you're in a spaceship or a city alleyway, or whatever. 

Zoom meetings are an inevitable part of a writer's life, whether it's publishers, podcast appearances, or above the line contributors for a film. 

BATTLING FATIGUE

under desk elliptical

standing desk

You will be seated for long periods of time, but that's no reason you shouldn't stay healthy. 

Being sure you have an ergonomic desk/chair situation, perhaps a standing desk (I have one and stand for every hour I sit, so 8 hours of work can be 4 hours of marching/dancing while typing). Get up, stretch, and be sure you get opportunities to look into the distance often to keep eyes healthy. I have my desk angled near a window and I can look at the mountains in the distance and occasionally watch people walking adorable pups. 

I've found over the years that the best inspiration for writing is to push away all the stressors of bills and everyday life and all the clutter we adults carry with us each day like anchors on a sinking ship.

Simply enter your writing space as if you haven't a care in the world, and if you can have a window nearby, utilize it. There is something about the dynamics of life going by that you realize plots, settings, and characters. Every car that passes down the street, I ponder the person's goal in their drive, their day, their work, their home, what music they are playing, if any. 

Try not to use music with lyrics or run the TV. Both can subconsciously influence your style, your plots, your wording.

As bizarre as it may sound, read your work out loud or get up and perform your character's lines as if you are an actor. Somehow it drones out your background mind's chatter and allows you to truly focus on the content without reading it over and over again, not really absorbing it.

Ultimately, if you find yourself at a loss for words, create a wall in your office that you can take a sharpie and write all the adjectives and verbs you can think of - just coat the wall with them. As goofy as it sounds, it's like a constant thesaurus to search for better ways of wording things.

Good luck my writer friends!