Do You Need The Perfect Writing Spot?

When I close my eyes and envision the perfect writing spot, it’s akin to the most majestic library. Shelves with stacks of books enclosing me with their scent, their very presence pushing me to greatness. Tall windows that bring in just the right amount of light in front of large comfy chairs. A wooden desk angled just so in the corner. Everything is clean and tidy with the perfect pens, pencils, notepads just begging to be used. Ahhh, it’s lovely.

That being said, I am currently writing this while sitting on the living room couch, my German Pointer seeing just how many times I can tell him “no” while pushing him off my lap. My ten-year-old is playing outside but doesn’t hesitate to run in every ten minutes to tell me the latest joke he thought up, the door slamming, his eyes shining. To top it off, my husband is cleaning the carpets upstairs with a swiftness that only rivals the screaming of the machine. Oh yes, I envy the writers with their perfect writing spot, their quiet corner, their little oasis. You lucky duck! I don’t have one of those. 

I have written in the passenger seat over bumpy dirt roads. At work sneakily flipping between my current work in progress and the latest spreadsheet. I have written in hard bleacher chairs while waiting for hockey practice to be over. I have even splashed a paragraph or two out while stirring spaghetti sauce and coaxing kids through homework assignments. That’s okay, I don’t want to miss my kids’ lives, I enjoy my family, and I have a great job. Be that as it may, throughout the years I occasionally find myself in a state of dismay over the fact that I can’t write the most perfect novel in the universe because I don’t have the most perfect place in the universe to write it. Darn it! During these moments I would stall, falter in my writing and sometimes not write for days or even weeks. 

So, is it a thing? Is there a perfect writing spot? Or is this as elusive as the unicorn? I have a friend that has an office. With a door. She can go in there, shut out the world, and create like a mad scientist in her own writing world that she has comfortably constructed. But, more often than not, my friend is usually sitting in a coffee shop – yup, that she has to drive to. What?! Why!? 

After mulling this over, I think that perhaps there is no perfect writing spot. Just writing. Just the need to get out whatever is brewing and storming inside of us, and sometimes that means a calm oasis, and sometimes that means a boisterous coffee shop. There are words that need to get out no matter what or where. And let’s be honest, sometimes those words need a little chaos, or calm, around us to be their best selves. What do writers do? Well, we adapt of course. We breathe deep, go to that place inside of us and hopefully get it down on paper before life takes over and we forget it. 

It is hard to balance the rest of our lives – career, family – with our writing. If you are like me, you long for that spot where you can shut the door and create without guilt, without mess, without interruption. But sometimes, or most of the time, you have to balance the laptop on your knees and type with one hand, while your other conducts life and pandemonium swirls around you. And you will, and you do, because all of it is important. The family, the job, your world that you have carefully created and yes, the writing. That is important too. So we do what we can, we write where we can. Who knows? Some of these words might lead to something, most will perish under scribbles of ink or disappear with the press of a button, but all were given the chance to shine. 

Tell me, friends, where do you like to write? Where is the craziest place/circumstance that you have had to write in? Do you dream of the perfect writing spot?

Photo Credit: Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Hilary Linnertz