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Blog: The Right Space Means Write Time

Philip Hurst

Philip Hurst

— 3 min read
Blog: The Right Space Means Write Time

For those of you wondering what I’ve been up to in the months between emails, a reminder about my Inspiration posts. These are quick review / reminder posts that may (or may not) inspire you to read or watch something I’ve recently took inspiration from. So, in case you missed it:

This month, though, I wanted to write a little more about my writing craft. Such as it is.

It occurred to me this year that for too many years I’ve been caught up in a culture of ‘write loads - write all the time - if you don’t write you fail’. This is not helpful, and I’ve experienced a few moments over the years where anxiety or guilt about my lack of writing has made me miserable.

(The same problem also happens with gardening, by the way. I think it’s probably a Phil thing).

So, for the last few months, I’ve given a lot of thought to how I write, and if there’s any little tweaks I could make to improve things.

(And if you’ve not already guessed, a lot of these ideas come through after reading Slow Productivity and Four Thousand Weeks. It’ll probably get worse after I get another book or two on my reading list).

You see, I work at my computer all day. I enjoy my job, but sometimes it does keep me glued to a screen in a way that’s not very helpful for my own wellbeing. Days of virtual meetings and task based work means that some times, especially when I’m at home, I leave my desk only briefly during the day.

I’d often noticed that, when I then wanted to go back into the room to write in the evening, part of me would get very negative about the idea. I’d be too tired, I’d be too distracted. Although I wanted to be creative and work on a story, I was finding it difficult to get past the door, never mind sitting in the chair.

Over the years, I’ve tried to do a number of things to address that feeling. Making it easy to switch between work and creative devices. Redecorating the room to contain more calming colours. Purchasing the ‘right’ writing software. They’ve all worked, but there was still a bit of a negative feeling that was more than just tiredness when it came to writing.

The thing that shook me up was the day that, on a whim, I did a bit of writing away from home. Being in a different environment really shook loose my creativity in a way I wasn’t expecting. So, between this and reading Slow Productivity, I started to wonder if I needed to differentiate my spaces better.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise. About 12 months ago, I seperated my gaming from my home office. This was, I’m going to admit, an attempt to reduce distractions. Having a gaming rig next to you when you’re trying to work is not a good recipe for a healthy screen/work/life balance. So my gaming now takes place downstairs, into the living room. While it has led to some compromises in the games I play, by moving my gaming into the room for relaxing I created a clear subconcious divide around my home.

I’m in the process of making that change for my writing as well. The difficulty is finding a space that I can use to define my writing. It’s going to take some practice and it’s going to take some patience. I’m placing a limit on myself that it has to be somewhere in my house - I can’t afford going to the coffee shop every time I want to write something. And the coffee at home is nice enough anyway.

I’m lucky in that I have a number of places around the house that I could appropriate for this idea, including a quirky outbuilding that doesn’t really have a use. That’s probably where I’ll end up.

What’s important, though, is that I’m not doing this to be more productive or write three thousand words in a half hour. I’m not trying to push my productivity. I’m trying to improve my relationship with writing and work - they can exist alongside each other, but maybe not as naturally as I might expect. It’s not the fault of either, but it also means that both have to flex a little.

I’ll keep you updated.

Sorry there’s nothing about my own writing this time, but I’m tidying something up at the moment that I hope to share in the next week or so.

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