As part of the TLC Book Tour for Ru Freeman’s debut A Disobedient Girl (Click on the link for my review), Savvy Verse & Wit got her to talk about her writing space or should I say spaces.
Without further ado, please welcome Ru to Savvy Verse & Wit.
I should have known better than to say I would write a guest post about my writing space, considering that I write everywhere! I used to believe in the absolute necessity of a “room of ones own” in order to write, until I discovered that the real space that any writer needs is inside ones own head.
No perfect vista, no clear surface, no computer or quill really has the power to draw an idea forth if the writer herself has not cleared room in her mind for the work at hand.
I realized that I wrote everywhere. In my car when I am a passenger and sometimes – shh! – when I was driving; but only at stop lights. I wrote while waiting for one of my daughters to get ballet out of her system. I wrote while the same daughter took her piano lessons. In fact, a few good short stories and the end of this novel was written in those half hour bursts when I had to sit at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music, waiting, waiting.
Some of the time I write without writing at all.
I “write” as I absorb the things that are happening around me, tucking away details that strike me in some corner of my brain, trusting that they will come forth and report for duty when the need arises down the line!
Other times, I jot down a thought on a scrap of paper – the usual bills and sundry lists and paraphernalia that stick to women in particular like we are comprised of a magnetic substance particularly attractive to such things – and stash it in an old cigar box that I picked up for the sweet price of $1.50 at the store down the street.
I confess that there was a time when I insisted upon a separate space for my writing.
The reason for that lay not so much in my need for a place to set up my computer and associated totems, but rather that I needed the other people in the house – primarily daughters – to recognize that I was “working” and that I had a “work space,” which was impregnable and sacred.
This was more a fantasy than a reality; children do not take kindly to existing in the margins and the heart of a mother is far too permeable to allow them to do so anyway! But it did help that there was a specific place I could go to, where I could say, this is my room, my study.
Now, in a much more chaotic household in Philadelphia, where I live the life of a juggler who gives a fairly good imitation of being proficient at the task, I travel to various places with my computer. To the dining table, in my bedroom, to the couch downstairs, and the car. What I take is an image of serenity, the memory of a place that has meant everything to me in terms of affirming my writing life: a screensaver which depicts the Bread Loaf campus. This alone is enough.
Check out a photo gallery of Sri Lanka. Please also check out Ru Freeman’s blog and this Amazon.com video with Ru Freeman.
I also have a guest post over at Ru’s blog. Check out my post on writing and photography.
And of course, my review of A Disobedient Girl.
In honor of this being my 600th Post and Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I’m going to giveaway my gently used copy of A Disobedient Girl to anyone in the world.
1. Leave a comment and tell me what your “private” space looks like where you go to relax and read.
2. Tweet, blog, Facebook, or what have you to spread the word for another entry.
3. Remember, this week only I’m offering 5 additional entries for those who purchase books through my Amazon.com Affiliate links. All you have to do is email me an invoice or order #.
4. Comment on the Review for another entry as well.
5. Leave a comment on my guest post at Ru Freeman’s blog for another entry.
Deadline is Sept. 19, 2009, at 11:59 PM
