July 21, 2011

Bikram Writing

 

by Alison Dasho

 

Okay, you guys, inspired by my experiences this week, I'm going to start a new business. For writers who need a place to write, editors who need a place to edit -- basically, anyone working from home who needs a non-home environment.

 

It'll be a third floor attic apartment (much like the one I'm working/living in now), and it won't have air conditioning, and it'll be 8 billion degrees outside.

 

I'll call it Bikram Writing. Sweat more than deadlines!

 

Unlimited water, access to a yoga mat on the floor and a little stool to prop up a laptop, and a two plug spaces in a power strip (one for a computer cord and one for a phone charger).$10/day, $50/week, or $175/month.

 

I feel like this business will make millions! But that could just be the heat talking...

 

In the next few weeks, we're moving to a new apartment with a luxurious second bedroom, which I'll be converting into an office -- so I'm thinking a lot about my ideal work space. Right now, I work in the kitchen, on a laptop on an old(ish) square kitchen table, with a paper daily planner at my side, a notepad and pen, and my cell phone. Oh, and my Kindle, for reading submissions/doing first-pass and last-pass evaluation reads. I have a small drawer behind me for important papers and records, and my Chicago Manual is all the way in the other room on the regular bookshelves. But if I have a whole room dedicated to working, and I don't have to pack up and put away all my work stuff each evening so the kitchen can go back to being a kitchen ... my mind is spinning with possibilities!

 

So I ask you: What do you love about your workspace? What do you wish you could change? Should I invest in a small desk from St. Vinnie's, or should I try some IKEA project? Drawers or no drawers? Won't I just fill them with stuff I don't need? How do I hide all my ugly power cords, now that I don't have to move them every day? And do I need to get a beanbag chair? Because I'm leaning in that direction. It will help with submissions, probably!

 

 

 

Alison Janssen
By Alison Janssen
Jul 21, 2011 10:24:02 AM

3 Comments

Sarah W

I would like a exercise ball to sit on, instead of the rather hard chair I'm using now.

And I'll confess, I'm waiting for my older daughter to go to college, so I can convert her bedroom into an office.

But right now, any place I can write is a good place to be.

Posted by: Sarah W | July 21, 2011 at 10:31 AM

Ma Fea

I dig the title of this post.

Posted by: Ma Fea | July 21, 2011 at 12:38 PM

Susanne

Oh! An office! How wonderful. Don't fill it up with too much stuff -- it saps your energy :)

What I love about my workspace is the teak desk (it's very, very old). I run my fingers along the wood and it feels like velvet. I try not to put too much stuff on it because I love seeing as much of the wood as I can. My desk is in front of a window (not the best configuration because of the lighting) but it's so wonderful to be able to look outside.

You can buy cable covers for your cables/wires. Or, get long twist ties and bundle them out of the way.

A room of one's own :) Enjoy.

Susanne

Posted by: Susanne | July 21, 2011 at 10:11 PM

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Spot the Deliberate Mistakes <br/> <br/> Spot the deliberate mistakes<br/> Lynne Patrick<br/> <br/> This week I’m wearing my editorial hat. The one with the Kevlar pad right where my forehead meets my hair, to absorb the thumps of despair. In the life I’ve just moved back into, post-publishing, I offer feedback to aspiring novelists on the standard 10,000-word submission package. Like this one.<br/> <br/> Dear Sir or Madam...<br/> I would like to send you my first novel to be published by your company. It is an action-packed thriller, 240,000 words long, and is about all the adventures in four years in the life of an American spy working in the USSR during the Cold War. I know it will be a bestseller.<br/> Since you have an office in New York, it will be easy for you to bring out the book in America as well as here in England, and though I have never visited America, I will be very pleased to come there when you have arranged an appearance on Oprah or something like that.<br/> I am enclosing a 5000-word synopsis and some sample chapters – the first, so that you know who the main character is, and two from the middle, because that’s where the book begins to gather pace and become really exciting. Also enclosed is a CD of the whole book, along with the cover design I have chosen, made by my friend who has been to art college.<br/> I look forward to receiving my contract and advance in the next few days.<br/> Yours sincerly<br/> Bill Smith.<br/> <br/> OK, that’s an exaggerated version – but not that exaggerated – I did get submission letters which weren’t a million miles from this, and they still come in at the rate of two or three a week, from people who misguidedly don’t keep in touch with developments. So let’s look at it all the same. You never know, it might contain some enlightening moments.<br/> First mistake is mine: nothing in this specimen letter is deliberate. The author really believes it.<br/> Second mistake: Dear Sir or Madam. Grrrrrr!<br/> Third mistake:all he has to do is send in his manuscript, and a few weeks later receive a life-changing cheque and box of free copies. Amazingly, some people still think this. It’s an illusion I came across quite often back in the 1990s when I ran creative writing classes at a local education centre, but you’d think aspiring writers would be more clued up these days. Evidence points to the contrary.<br/> Fourth mistake: 240,000 action-packed words... a contradiction in terms, wouldn’t you say? Hard to maintain packed action much beyond 100,000. And a four-year span? Hm.<br/> Fifth mistake: Cold War thrillers are so last century. Literally. They fall into that nomansland between historical and contemporary; neither publishers nor booksellers know where to slot them in.<br/> Sixth mistake: it’s his first book; how on earth does he know how it will sell? It’s a question which makes strong marketing men gnaw their fingernails. (The subtext of the sentence is because books like this always are – that’s why I’ve written it.)<br/> That’s six mistakes in the first paragraph. I don’t think I need to go on, do I?<br/> Well, OK, then, just one more tiny point – HE DIDN’T PROOFREAD HIS LETTER! I know how to spell sincerely. So will the editor.<br/> And one more – no one who has done their homework would ever submit chapters from the middle of the book as a taster package – much less admit in the cover letter that it doesn’t get exciting till then. But you knew that, didn’t you?<br/> Some people still don’t, though. In my feedback role I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who think a synopsis is an optional extra, or not necessary at all; and astonished by the ones who cherrypick chapters.<br/> I suspect I’m preaching to the converted here, so I won’t go on any longer.<br/> Except to say thanks again to the phantom blog repairer, who sorted out the recurring glitch for me again last week and still hasn’t told me who s/he is so I can thank him/her properly. I tried a different approach this time: I typed directly into the Compose box. As before, the word count still registered zero after two paras, so I’m assuming the problem still exists, and am taking alternative action as before.<br/> Technology does not like me!
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