Of course, since this is what I’m working on the most right now, this is what I’m writing about. You, the reader, probably don’t have to worry about this. But it may be fun to learn what goes into a writing office?
Signs. Right now, with only my wife and the cats, I don’t need a “video conference” sign to put on my office door. However, this may be a need for others… “Writing” and “video conference” signs are a must if you have family living with you.
You CAN’T interrupt a writer when they’re writing. The scene they’re working on will break – and NEVER return. There’s too many words in a Screenplay to recover the train of thought. And for novels, it’s about four times as many words. I’m sure that Stephen King has a sign on his office that says “writing”.
The best a writer can do is try to write a different scene. It’s never going to come out exactly the same.
What else? Desk. My wife found a new desk for me at a reasonably priced antique shop. Then she found a office chair/book case deal. A couple of lamps and a Chinese art painting by J. Cheng, at thrift stores and Craig’s List.
Book shelves are important. I have two of them. One we got off of Amazon, but it’s the shoddiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. What they show in the ad and what they send you are two different things! So, we’re going to have to shore it up with some bits of wood to keep it from, well, falling in on itself.
Coasters. You don’t want to ruin that new desk, do you? Office Depot, or Zazzle. I was hoping Zazzle would have regular coasters, but the ones they have are the soapstone type. You can get printed on it whatever you like. And if you’re stranded in the arctic, now that coaster doubles as a Kudlik! But I think my wife has something more classy looking than a stone coaster with printing on it.
Beat Board. I know, there’s NOTHING worse than a really nice fancy shmancey office with cherry furniture and gold trimmed lamps… and a cork board stuck on the wall. But yeah…Scrivener will get you into thinking “Cork board”. And if you write screenplays too, you’ll wither and die without one. And since I’m slowly adapting my screenwriting template to more of Save The Cat, the cork board is a must-have.
Now what? Pens. Tul pens. Click pens with or without gel, medium or fine point (I’m going to go with fine, because I can’t remember what mine was). The only thing with a Gel pen is, if you go that route, and you need to highlight something you wrote in Gel, Highlight it first. THEN write the text. No smearing.
Colored Pens. You’ll need them for the beat board. And for all those books you keep buying from the Writer’s store.
Colored highlighters. Must have. See above.
Drawer organizer. For all your pens.
Compass, protractor, or ruler: For underlining things with the colored pens. Want a free ruler? Go to the nearest Model Train show. There’s always a NTSA rep standing by with free rulers with “Stop, look and listen!” on them. It’s a campaign to save lives at railroad crossings. And you can pick up a ruler with O Gauge conversion on it. Handy if you grew up with Lionel trains.
Pen Cup. It can be a coffee mug, or a dedicated pen cup, like from a desk set. If you’re an eclectic kind of person, you can even just find a used Mah Jongg set and use the die cup for it.
Clock. You don’t need it, but it gives the office class.
Binders. I’m going to use Zazzle to make binders for my scripts. Or you can get plain white ones. up to you. But I think it will be great in the future to look back at scripts I’ve written, with a printed cover.
What’s in your writing space?
