Saturday, July 12, 2008

It's the [illustrated] my writing space meme

Inspired by Andrew T and Miss Read, here's a photo of my writing space as it was yesterday afternoon. I was about to claim tidiness is the hobgoblin of little minds, but I've looked up the quote and Ralph Waldo Emerson was talking about foolish consistency, so bang goes that excuse. In other words, I'm something of a slob. But it's a work in progress kind of space and I know where everything is [mostly], so it seems to suit me.

The crappy desk is the corner was bought online from the Cotswold Company for two reasons - the malformed pentagon shape that fits nicely in the corner under the sloping roof, and it was cheap. Pride of place goes to my iMac, while other office essentials sprawl across the surface: phone, mouse and pad, post-it notes, coffee mug, plenty of pens, sundry stationery. The A4 pages are the synopsis for my job of the day: writing my 36th issue of The Phantom.

Left of the desk is a handy bookcase, with two or three project-related stacks on each shelf. The top surface is for current projects like pitching story of the day ideas to Doctors, hence the newspaper clippings, Complete Family Health Guide and dictionary [trustier than any spell check]. Right of my desk is my printer, CDs and other detritus. Under the desk is a space heater for when my toes get cold. Better to warm my feet than the whole house.

The walls are awash with notes, reference material and favourite images. The moody, inverse photograph was the poster for a local production of Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof. The green and red picture is a reproduction of a painting by artist Dean Ormston, Spicy Mystery Tales, his homage to pulp fiction book covers of decades past. There's nothing in the corner because I can't see that when I'm sitting down.

I hereby tag Jason, Lucy and Lianne with this meme. Go on, get out your digital cameras and show us where you write.

3 comments:

Lucy V said...

I don't have a digital effing camera! Or a writing space for that matter. As anyone who has been to my place will tell you, I put my laptop on any available surface these days (the cooker as I type this, in fact: it's OFF, obviously) as my house is the size of a frigging ant nest. So I dodge your meme sir!!!

missread said...

Holy moly David, that's a mess. And you seem such an organised person too...

Kev Levell said...

It's great to see where people work. Something about a messy desk and a clear mind drifts through my cluttered brain...

There's a book out called Studio Space which shows a whole load of comic artist's work areas that looks like a informative read too.

Can you post up a close-up of Dean Ormston's pulp cover?