This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
By Anna Bell
Since buying our house I’ve been ridiculously excited about my writing room, and finally after months and months of renovations, I have a useable room. Now that I can use it, it’s making think about where I write best. 
The last year has seen me write just about everywhere. From the Channel Tunnel when we were on our back to our French house from the UK, to cheap hotels and restaurants. I think the worst place I worked was our lounge when it was still a work in progress. I had to perch on our new cellophane-wrapped sofa on a freshly-laid concrete floor, the dust of which flew round the room and caked everything (and everyone) in it. Having no real writing room has forced me to discover little cubby holes in our new house, and brilliant spots in the garden to write from. I’m amazed at how much I’ve been able to get down when sat in the most random places. It seems if you’re on a deadline you really can write or edit anywhere.
I used to have my own little writing room in my old house in Portsmouth. I shared the space with our noisy boiler, and our hoover, but it was perfect in many ways. It overlooked the other houses’ terraced gardens, giving me ample of opportunity to be nosey and, most importantly, it was too far away from our WiFi to pick it up – meaning I could write without the distractions of Twitter. I spent many happy (and many frustrated) hours in that room and, aside from the garden, I almost exclusively wrote in there.
I was quite disciplined back then and I would write at my desk. Now I’m out of the habit and I almost forget that my office is available for me to use. I find I’m much more likely to sit at my desk during the day, but at night I feel more comfortable relaxing on the sofa, laptop on lap or sitting outside enjoying the last of the evening’s sun.
I’ve also noticed another fundamental problem with having a writing room, in that it’s the only ‘spare’ room in the house that currently isn’t being used. This means it easily becomes a dumping ground. I took the first photo of my writing room yesterday morning, and the other the photo almost 24 hours later. I’ll never begrudge my mother-in-law taking my washing off the line and folding it up, but my office seems to have become the new favourite place for the laundry to accumulate. And then there’s my husband who can’t get used to the fact that it’s no longer where all the building materials are stored. It’s not only me that needs a re education in what a writing room is, it’s the whole family. h I need to remember why I was so excited about the room in the first place – the fact that I can shut myself away from everyone and everything. The amazing view of the mountain beyond (if I only cleaned the windows enough to see). The fact that it should be my way of signalling to my brain that I’m at work.
Do you find that you write better in your writing space? Do you have a lovely writing room but shun it in favour of another place like the sofa?