Why You Should Learn to Write Anywhere
I’m currently typing this piece in front of a third floor window at a white wooden desk with turquoise flowers for handles. My space works, but this is not my normal writing spot. In fact, I outlined this piece not at my own desk, but on a plastic seat tray while masked on a flight to visit my fiancé’s family, where I set up shop at his sister’s childhood vanity that resembles nothing of my own writing space. A few years ago, I would refuse to write in any space other than the designated three: the library, my bedroom desk, or a table (not a bar counter) at a local coffee shop. Yet, as we transition into 2022, the last two years with COVID-19 changed our ideas of what we designate as our work space.
While so many of us transitioned to a work-from-home station, or find solace in writing from a necessary space, there will be days where we won’t have access to the perfect writing space. In fact, letting go of the ideas to have the right kind of inspirational wall art, lamps, or pinboard allows a writer to be able to work on days without the routine or the right setting. And while I am someone who spent hours curating the perfect nook to call my writing home, there are key benefits to ditch the desks and learn how to write anywhere.
Sharpens Focus
We create several reasons why a certain space won’t work as a writing space: This counter’s too cluttered, a window distracts from the page, noise from public places drown out our thoughts. These factors of surroundings are, like many things, out of our control and at times issues we must make do with. Similar to writer’s block, learning how to block out distractions makes a writer’s focus skills vital. Being able to switch your focus on so that you can write anywhere regardless of the situation allows a writer to increase focus on the page in front of them. Concentration enhances the writer’s ability to use the time they may have to get farther into their work rather than waiting for the right moment.
Improves Productivity
When you sit down to write, time can slip through your fingers as quickly as it takes for the pen to reach the paper. In an ideal world, we would schedule a writing time at our desk surrounded by the necessary plants, books, and posters that we’re convinced will center us enough to churn out 250 words to several pages. But there are realities - the to-do lists, the families, the holidays - that pack into the clusters of free time that remove us from our favorite desk chairs. Even when we steal an hour at our perfect writing space, we will still encounter days where we produce little to nothing on our work. With strong focus skills comes more productivity. Even if the ten-minute wait to pick up your friend from work or school gives ten minutes to jot down ideas or questions in a notebook or Notes app.
Tap Into Creativity
Some of the best moments for inspiration occur within the space that lies beyond our quiet window views. In order for imaginative thinking to expand beyond what we know, we should search for new details or ideas to borrow from instances in real life. Rethink the distractions in your home or other settings. Is the conversation behind you in the park hindering your thinking, or can there be dialogue that could turn into inspiration for a conversation between your characters? Notice your children playing with their toys, and could this lead into an exercise for your next writing practice? Jotting down the people, places, or things surrounding you allows for spontaneous and sometimes necessary material that writers thrive from.
Lessens Perfectionism
I am guilty of the ‘right space’ curation as many others. If I just have a taller lamp, or those specific photographs in front of me, or a bookshelf beside me with a printer on top I will convince myself to write. I’ve ordered the corkboard, framed the photographs of Harper Lee and southern inspiration above me, bought a larger desktop so I could see multiple pages better. All of those things stem from two larger problems: pose and procrastination. I scroll through desk setups on Instagram and Pinterest. I borrow ideas from great writers who sit in cool leather chairs. I hold a thought that maybe if I look like a writer, I’ll feel better about calling the work I do each morning the work of a writer. Further, I can blame the writing set up for why I can’t write today. Picking out plants or designing an organizational cubby takes less work than piecing together my thoughts on a page and feeling good about them. Instead, if you learn to write more from places like the bar counter, sofa, or living room carpet, you demystify the notion that great writers need to work in only the right spaces. The pressure to write in a cookie-cutter spot also releases the tension to only write well in certain spaces. You can write as messy as the pile of unfolded t-shirts on your bed beside you, and can still walk away with great writing.
We all face an unknown year ahead with the external Covid-19 circumstances slipping into the fabric of 2022. Perhaps we’ll wait a bit longer to return to our coffee shop corners and libraries to find our old writing spots. Yet even in our own homes, there’s value in learning to type or pen the words in our lap, no matter what we call our workspace.
