My Writing Cave

Compared to the old house, my new writing space isn’t much of a cave. I’m currently set up in one end of the living room. At the old house, we’d converted the formal dining room into my office space. Here, the formal dining room is set up as a library. Go figure.

A picture of my messy desk.
Where I work.

One of the best things about my new location is that I have light. But more importantly, I also have WINDOWS! I’m able to refocus my eyes on something in the distance now. That was the worst thing about the old writing cave — no windows, no real light.

A view from my desk to the back yard.
Windows! The view vastly improves when the pool boy comes by. 😉

So as you can see, I’m not the organized type. At all. My desk is the default dumping station for anything paper related. My chair often has a stack of mail waiting for me to sort the recycling from the bills from the stuff that needs shredded. Oh yeah, I wonder which box has my shredder in it. Hrrm. The scary thing is, and this used to drive my mom nuts, I can usually find that piece of paper that I need in a relatively short amount of time. It may look like chaos, but it’s a highly developed and fine-tuned archeological filing system. The older the paper, the deeper it’ll be.

Here’s a close up shot of the hutch that sits on my right. It usually holds important papers, my writing craft reference books and you can see there in the middle, my TBR stack is taking over again and blocking a second set of craft and research books in the back. There are probably a couple of the newer or more frequently used ones sitting on the desk somewhere as well.

A picture of my hutch, holding reference books, writing craft books and my To Be Read stack.
Writing Craft Books and a growing TBR stack.

“Do you find you can only write in one area or can you move about?”

I usually spend my days in this space, but evenings often find me in the TV room with my laptop, IF I can pry it out of my son’s hands. I also find I work on paper copy better if I’m sitting in the recliner at the other end of the living room from my desk. It helps relieve the temptation of the internet and also gives me some room to spread out on the coffee table.

Ok, you’re right. How can I work with all this visual clutter? I need to clean it off. Every so often it gets too overwhelming and I do actually find the surface of the desk. I should have done it before I took these pictures, but I ran out of time with all the back-to-school excitement this week. Besides, isn’t writing about honesty and digging down deep to the truth? Does your creative cave work for you? How would you improve it?

To see some other writing caves a few of my friends are sharing this week, you can visit their websites, below:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

12 thoughts on “My Writing Cave”

    1. The windows were one reason I chose the living room over the dining room again. There’s a single window with plantation shutters in the dining room. Or there was. Until we decided to put book shelves in front of the two on that wall of the house. Oops. Good thing we like the TV room (which is connected to the dining room) to be a real cave.

  2. I downsized my desk because I got tired of my family loading up my spaces with paperwork, toys, clothing items and other stuff. They don’t dump as much stuff now because they know it will disappear into the trash, recylce bin or give away box.

    “It may look like chaos, but it’s a highly developed and fine-tuned archeological filing system.” — LOL

    1. I might have to consider such strategy. I’ve also threatened to not have a single flat surface in the house. And my mom always swore, NEVER have a kitchen with a corner in it. Everyone will want to be in it at the same time. I have 3. Oh boy. Actually, that hasn’t been too bad so far.

  3. I completely understand the organized chaos! Must be a writer thing.

    And I love the windows–a must have for all of that sunshine!

    1. Looking at everyone else’s desks… doesn’t appear to be.

      The windows are on the NW side of the house, so only late afternoon sun. But the skylights over the patio help with that too. It’s a very light-filed house though. Much nicer than the last cave we lived in. It was DARK.

    1. Thanks, we moved to a new cave complex (err.. house) this past February. Love the place, but miss the view of the whole valley from the old house. Luckily, that’s the only thing I miss!

  5. Oh, I love the windows. I wish I could move my office to the rear of the house. I’d rather have a view of the neighbor’s horse farm than my driveway. lol

    1. Thanks! As long as you didn’t have the windows open or don’t mind that fresh, country air it sound better!

      (I grew up on a farm, so it wouldn’t bother me!)

  6. I love the view. My new writing area, once I finish cleaning and converting it over and organizing it will have a view of my neighbors fence. I was thinking of taping a poster of hawaii or fiji or some great tropical or romantic place on the window or around the wall.

    And the table I use in the living room is a dumping ground too. For mail, books, etc. And all my other books are stacked in various places. The bonus is that they’re usually in another part of the house so I do get a little bit of exercise (and an excuse to get out of the chair) to go hunt them down.

    1. Love the poster idea. I learned when I was working in an office, that if I didn’t have an outside window, my eyestrain got really bad. I’m far sighted so I NEED to refocus on something in the distance to relax my eyes.

      We’re rearranging books and putting away boxes this weekend. Fun stuff. If I can find my shredder, I can get rid of a bunch of this paper clutter too!

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