Inspiring spaces

I find it easier to write if I have a devoted space. Even back when my desk consisted of a scrap piece of wood balanced on an old TV tray, just the very thought of having a place all my own, where no household detritus was allowed to collect, opened up a path to my muse.

The only place I have available for a separate office is my tiny enclosed porch at the front of the house. Last summer I decided to do whatever I could to make it a cozy, beautiful space–an acknowledgement of the importance of writing in my life.

I have a view of the beautiful Oklahoma landscape and plenty of light, and in the spring the mulberry tree right outside the window attracts dozens of different species of birds. The windows are positioned to catch the constant breeze, and the trees keep the sun at a manageable level. It’s paradise, in mild weather. In the winter it’s just too cold, so I sit uncomfortably on the couch with my laptop or legal pad and wonder if one of the kids would mind giving up his/her room to a good cause. I don’t even like blogging on the couch.

So for me, it’s important to have a place that is undeniably mine, and also business-like yet beautiful. I like serenity with pops of energy, such as that blue painting above my desk.

This is an old piece of textured white laminate that I washed paint over. Basically free art.

I know some people love creating in busy coffee shops, others love a quiet park bench, and others flop down wherever they happen to be, but I think most people have at least a rudimentary space in their homes devoted to their craft. And apparently I’m not the only one fascinated by them, because there are sites devoted to all kinds of work spaces. Here’s one for studio musicians, one for artists, and one for writers. I bet if you googled your brand of creativity plus “office pictures” you’d come up with a site just for you.

Where do you connect with your muse?

Personality type and writing advice

If we’re all different, why does the writing community seem to want to herd us into the prolific/personable/power-outliner box? I’m curious if this is just my experience or if this is indeed the modern trend of the creative writer.

The reason I’m asking is because I took a personality test and found out my Myers-Briggs type is probably INFJ (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Judgement) though the F part is balanced by a well-developed T (Thinking).

Knowing these online tests are sometimes unreliable I spent a good amount of time researching the different personality types. A lightbulb went off over my head, about why I always feel so out of sync with how I know I “should” be writing.

It’s my opinion most of the advice out there for writers is written from an extraverted, judging perspective, from people who are (or, who, like me, have bought into that as the correct writing advice) pedantic and driven and willing to put stuff out there. That seems, to me, to be the norm now. It seems the Orson Scott Cards and the Stephen Kings have been generally accepted as the gurus. Perhaps because outgoing is accepted over introspective as the way to be in society, logic over emotion, certainty over consideration. But it’s just not true. If you develop the first in each comparison and ignore the second, you will suffer. The same could be said for the opposite imbalance, but I haven’t encountered that much. Those guys definitely have a lot of good advice, but their perspective is no better than, say, Sarah Stockton‘s or Laraine Herring‘s, who take a more centered, thoughtful approach.

That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to what works for you, and hold your ground when you feel bullied by someone else’s inability to understand why you don’t write like him. This is something I’ve struggled with over the years, and since one aspect of my personality is aligning myself with my peers, I can see why. It’s all about who I hang with.

So what about you, have you ever taken a personality test? Did the results confirm what you already knew about yourself, or did they open up some aspect you hadn’t seen before? Did your new knowledge affect how you are in your writing space?