I wrote my first notes for Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal in a hotel lobby. It was early one morning while we were on vacation, and my husband was still asleep, so instead of turning on the light and disturbing him or resorting to writing in the bathroom, I quietly got dressed, grabbed my journal, and made my way to the lobby for a hot cup of tea.
Now I realize that’s a rather odd sentence because for many people “early morning” and “vacation” don’t exactly go together. Doesn’t vacation rather mean sleeping late and getting a slower start to the day? But vacation or not, work day or weekend, I’m generally a morning person, waking up early without an alarm and looking forward to a new day.
That morning, I was quite happy to write in the hotel lobby. At other times I might be writing in a library (which is where I’m writing this paragraph), while waiting to get my hair cut, in my dentist’s waiting room, at the airport, on our sun deck, in the basement next to our computer printer, propped up on one elbow while lying in bed, sitting cross-legged on the living room couch — and oh yes, I have a desk at home next to the kitchen and a desk at my office at the church which are great places to write too.
So does a writer need a special place to write? Or as I read recently, Does a writer need an office? On the one hand, I’d say no, I don’t need an office or some other special place to write — I can and do write in lots of different places.
But on the other hand, it definitely helps to have some designated space. While I can make do with just about anything anywhere, I do appreciate a journal, a filing folder, a crate for books and other research, a table surface where I can leave works in progress without having to put everything away whenever it’s time for dinner.
I also enjoy seeing where other writers write, and here are two of my recent favourites:
Cynthia Ruchti shares My Writing Desk and includes some beautiful artwork and views to the outside.
Barbara Techel includes a photo of her writing cottage in her post, What My Writing Cottage Means to Me, and follows that up with A Sneak Peek Inside.
Both are such a sensory delight, I’m not sure how much writing I would get done, but I do enjoy being able to look over their shoulders 🙂
Writing/Reflection Prompt: How about you? Where do you write?
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April Yamasaki 
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