by Elton Gahr

Created on: April 10, 2009   Last Updated: April 11, 2009

Creating an environment that is conductive to writing is a good way to help improve the overall quality and output of your work. This workplace doesn't have to be an office in the sense of being its own separate room with a desk and a picture of your family, but there are a few things that you need in order to create, some of those being physical objects and others are not, but you'll need them all in order for your office to be a place you can successfully write.

A few years ago, the first thing on the list for a writer's office would have been a dictionary, a thesaurus, a book of names and an encyclopedia. Today, all of those are replaced by your computer. And that is the first thing that your writer's office will need. This doesn't have to be the top of the line computer; in fact, I suggest that if you want to play games, and you can afford it, you should have a different computer for that because you don't need the distractions. All this computer needs is enough power to run a word processor and to search the Internet.

Once you have that, the second thing you will need is a comfortable chair. This may seem trivial until the first time that you find yourself squirming in your chair - not because you are distracted from, or tired of, writing but because you just can't sit any longer. If you are writing you will be sitting for long periods of time, don't let the chair become a distraction.

Next you will want at least one notepad and pen. You can keep notes on your computer, but sometimes an idea just pops into you head and the last thing you want to do is let it escape and besides, no matter how long you have worked on a computer there is something about a pen and paper that remains special.

Depending on your work habits, there are other things which are going to be useful. Music can help some people to find a feeling or emotion they need while it simply distracts others, but if music helps make certain it is available. This is also true of pieces of art, books, and even the Internet.

Far more difficult than the physical things you need in your write'rs office though are the nonphysical, and the most important of those is time. If you want to have a writer's office, that means anything you have to find a way to spend considerable amounts of time in it. The only way I have found that this works is to make a decision to sit down every day and do some amount of writing. 500 words is a good start.

The next of these intangibles you will need is privacy. Perhaps there are people who can write while the phone is ringing, the kids are yelling and the neighbor is asking for sugar but I haven't met them. It is for this reason that the corner of the living room is typically not the best place for your writers office, more important though is making your friends and family understand that you need these moments of privacy. This means making them understand that just as they wouldn't interrupt you at work they shouldn't interrupt you here. Convincing them of this is nearly impossible so good luck.

Writing as a hobby or as a job is something that is valuable and important and making that clear to yourself and others is a large step towards creating something worthwhile with your words. One of the first steps to this understanding is to create a true office. A place that your subconscious as well as your family knows you are at when you are working and hopefully both will come into line and help, at least a little.

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