How I Wrote My Debut Novel: Part Two – Focus and the Value of Writing in the Same Location

Place matters. We become emotionally attached to it. Over time, a place becomes imbibed with meaning and memory. A place becomes a sanctuary, an oasis, a base of respite. For creative work, this fact should be taken advantage of. Establish a physical location for your writing and go to that place to write. Soon, this will become the place where your creative work gets done and the place will become defined by this pursuit.

The place where I do my writing, where I’m writing this, is the fourth bedroom in my home. The room is upstairs, off the loft. It has a window seat and overlooks the street. I’ve taken the room for my purposes, lined the walls with bookshelves and placed our old family dining room table in the middle of it. This is my study. This is where my creative work gets done.

Your space need not be a room. One writer I know stands when he writes. His writing space is the top of a dresser. I have heard of writers who have a portable place—a box which contains their writing and writing accoutrements—which they take wherever there is a space and they do their work. The space where they write is temporary, the place where they write is the box. So, on to your task: create your place to create.