I read someplace that all “writers” should find a special spot to “work their craft.” For me, the mere suggestion evokes images of magic wands, long cloaks with roomy hoods, and steamy cauldrons.
Mystical and a little frightening, erudite and a little pretentious.
Where I write is none of those. It’s an eight by eight section of a larger room in the downstairs of our house. It doesn’t even have a wall with a door making it a separate room. I hung floor-to-ceiling curtains which do little to keep the children out or the barking of dogs muffled. But it’s my space — complete with lava lamp, lap blanket, and space heater.
In April, 2014, when I sat down to write Ginned Up, Rob gave me an orchid. He found the flowering plant at a local grocery store. It lasted the fifty-seven days it took me to knock out that first manuscript.
Then, it became a tradition of sorts.
While I have made scores of modifications to my “writing space” — as the children call it, there’s been one constant: an orchid in bloom in my peripheral sight.
I’m on orchid #7. This particular pink dendrobium with 3 x 4-inch blooms on two arching stems I found at Home Depot for ten bucks.
Beautiful and cheap: these seemingly fragile plants are long-blooming and pretty tough; plus, they are, generally, less expensive than a bouquet of cut flowers.
Now the only “downside” (of the ones that I’ve had in my writing space) is their lack of any real scent. (We seem to love flowers for both their looks and their smell.) The orchids which have supervised my daily writing have been singularly beautiful which — when in the wild, not on my window sill — use their color and shape to attract pollinators instead of any pheromone-laden scent.
Is this a problem for me?
Not one that a $5.99 scented candle can’t fix.
While some might say, “The best things in life are free,” I assert that the best things in life total $15.99.
As such, I encourage you to go get yourself an orchid and a candle. Both should last close to two months.
And frankly, when was the last time sixteen bucks bought you two full months of a happy set of eyes and a satisfied nose?
Jenna Brownson 
Trader Joe’s has them at a good price and in various sizes.
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And we have been the recipient of several of them and can also attest to their beauty and durability. Thank you Jenna. So we have orchids and candles, does that mean I have to write something?
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Get going. 2016 is your year.
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I usually write at our kitchen table (which has a couple of dried out carnations Lilly gave me a couple of weeks ago), or at the local Dunkin Donuts. I go home with the scent of coffee wafting from me. Our writing space is where we’re comfortable and can get some work done.
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I’d get too distracted in a public place. You must have better concentration skills than most.
Have you read “On Writing” by Stephen King? He’s got some great ideas on the mechanics of writing.
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On Writing is one of my favorite writing books. And yes, most of the time the hubbub around me is like white noise and I can focus on what I’m doing. Unless I’m people watching, which often serves a purpose, too!
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It’s an obsession. Once I began putting words on a page, I became an observer of lots of things which had gone unnoticed up to then. It’s a neat and, at times, very distraction trait I now have.
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I too don’t have my own room – just a desk with a space heater in the busiest area of the house and I suppose that’s good enough for me! It’s both a blessing and a curse to have my space right in the middle of everything.
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The fortunes of life as a parent.
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