Writers Unbound

After moving to Florida, I set up my home office in our sunroom. My former home was an old one, with lots of nooks, crannies and excess space. I had a large room that was perfect for an at-home freelance writing business.

In our newer home here, there wasn’t a great place for a workroom. I didn’t think we had much of a choice.

Then we decided to do extensive remodeling. As the contractors ripped up old floor tile, I studied a room off our back entry way. Technically, it’s a supply room. Technically, it’s a former laundry room. But I realized it was plenty big enough for a home office, especially now that I work on a laptop instead of a desktop computer. With everything moved out of it, ‘everything’ being defined as an obscene collection of clutter and cleaning supplies and tools, I can tell the room is actually bigger than I realized.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.

I’ve always joked to friends I have an office Stephen King might envy. There’s a view of our backyard and deck area. We have old oaks, Sago Palms and a big oleander that blooms dark pink slightly lethal blossoms each year. I catch glimpses of hawks, songbirds and an occasional turtle. Butterflies and hummingbirds feed on the Lantana right by my corner window. The sunroom has seven windows in all. Very inspiring. But there are also drawbacks.

I get distracted very easily. For one thing, we have this chicken that showed up two years ago and decided she’d stay. She flew over the back fence and adopted us. She’s still basically untamed; try to touch her and you will feel the wrath of her beak. But she likes attention. She’ll show up at the door and peck on the glass until I go out and talk to her.

Then there’s the glare. I end up closing all the blinds in the afternoon because the sun is so bright it drives my eyes straight to the nearest bottle of eyedrops.

There’s also the traffic. My daughters and their friends always use the sunroom door when they head to the pool, despite the availability of a very good exit door in the family room.

Things are topsy turvy here with all the house renovations—one fellow fell through our garage ceiling not long ago, sustaining no serious injuries—but I’m planning my new workspace with enthusiasm.

It’s a lot smaller than the space I have now. But what’s important is that it’s more private and there are no windows.

Every writer needs a place of her own. Whether it’s a corner or a full room doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with the space that counts.

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