This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
This week's fantastic My Writing Room piece comes courtesy of Sue Welfare. Sue's latest book is One Night Only (currently only 99p on Kindle). You can also read Sue's recent interview and her writing tips.
My Writing Room by Sue Welfare
When I showed Phil, my husband, the photo of my office, he said, ‘Bloody hell, that looks tidy.’ Which is true and completely due to arrival of my new iMac, after my previous Mac died a couple of weeks back. It seemed like sacrilege to put this gorgeous bright shiny new thing in amongst the dust and chaos the last one had had to put up with!
We live in a converted Sunday school and my office is in the smallest room in the house, and it is most definitely a one-person space, situated just off the sitting room and I think was probably once a storeroom or cloakroom. People often go in there thinking it’s still a cloakroom or the way out!
I love it. For years in previous houses I’ve worked in the sitting room with the kids (I’ve got 4 sons), the dogs and cats, TV and radio, which was just fine at the time, but I always dreamt of a time when I’d have a proper office. So, the peace and quiet and the ability to shut the door on the work – or life, is a luxury I really appreciate.
So what’s in here? Well, I’ve got a good sound system – I like to listen to music when I write – lots of CD’s, books, boxes of paper, files, handbags and briefcases oh and both my previous Macs! There’s no view to distract me and the single window has blinds so I can’t even look out onto the rather bleak yard beyond.
I share my office with a big blonde mongrel called Beau and the boiler (artfully cropped from this shot!) so it’s snuggly, warm, a bit airless and full of dog toys, a dog bed, biscuits and books, which for me is just about as close to perfect as it gets.
The painting above the desk was given to me a friend – I have another by the same artist - and both hang in my office.
I bought the desk from Emmaus near Cambridge for a tenner. Emmaus have branches all over the UK and are great places for finding good value second hand furniture, as well as up-cycled and refurbished furniture. I’ve bought lots of stuff from them over the years.
The bookshelves, the office chair, and the filing cabinets have been accumulated from various yard sales, auctions and charity shops. My favourite thing –not shown on this picture - is a huge low shop cupboard from the 20’s bought from a friend when she was moving and hadn’t got space for it, and that takes all of the back wall – and contains masses of books, box files and the mountains of paper that I can’t bring myself to throw away, but my office is so tiny I can’t get far enough away from it to take a decent photo!