Newbie's Corner: A Room of One's Own Part One, A Writing Space of Your Own

with Sharon Burke

Image courtesy of Giphy

During May, I attended the Sydney Writers' Festival and went to a session called “A Room of One's Own”. Three fiction writers and members of the audience discussed this quote from an essay by Virginia Woolf: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”.

The words “a room of her own” were thought to have three meanings: the need for authors to have their own writing spaces, the imaginary world an author enters when he or she creates fiction and the world readers inhabit when they read fiction.

These interpretations of Virginia Woolf's words will be the subject of my next three blogs.

Cassandra recently wrote about the writing spaces of BITB members. Her article started me thinking more about writing spaces. Why are they so important to authors? Do they help us in our creative work? What can we learn from this?

I've written fiction and non-fiction for many years using a shared family computer at a shared desk. Some of my writing has been published so I know I can write effectively without having a private writing space but, despite this, for many years I've craved a writing space of my own. The writers I know treasure their writing spaces or really wish they had one. Having your own dedicated writing space seems to be a goal many writers share.

Maybe having our own writing spaces helps to foster our creativity. The shared space I used for over twenty years never meant as much to me as having my own laptop and roll-top desk. I could never make it my own.
                                                                             

Perhaps this relates to research findings from the world of office work. Efficiency experts promoted open plan offices in the 1990s and hot-desking in the early 2000s. Such arrangements improved communication to some extent, but to the disappointment of many employers they inhibited creativity. Studies such as those of Craig Knight (2010) have found that personalising your workspace fosters creativity. Having your own writing space allows this personalisation to happen to a degree than is possible with a shared space.

                                                                           

Think of the great writers who have had their own writing work spaces:
Jane Austen had her own writing table.

Laura Ingalls Wilder (of Little House on the Prairie fame) wrote on an esquiterie (writing desk) her husband had made as she travelled by wagon across the USA.

One of the writers at the Sydney Festival referred to a famous portrait of Charlotte and Emily Bronte – one is sitting on a chair, the other on her bed – both are working at their writing desks.

Do you have a dedicated writing space? Is it important for you to have one? What have you done to personalise it? Do you think your creativity improves when you use this space?
I love to love: My husband's great grandfather owned an esquiterie. It has recently come into our possession. Its beauty fires my imagination – what was written at it so long ago?
                                                                             

I love to laugh: I watched the Chaser's Election Desk on ABC iview the other night. It was hilarious.



I love to learn: I recently watched the 1970s TV series “Against The Wind” for the first time in 40 years. I'd love to learn more about life in Ireland during the late 1700s and early 1800s.