Q: Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil. Do you budget based on book sales, or do you just go for it? What’s your dream office look like?
- from Susan
If I had based my expenses on my advances or royalties…
When I committed to a fiction writing future, I spent what it took to be all in. That meant squeezing a writing space into our second bedroom. It meant upgrading my home computer, buying a few highly-touted “how to” books on the craft, and spending the money on a writers’ conference (and then another). I had prepared for the new challenge by saving money from my other work life, so I was able to put out some funds.
Now, in my new home, I have a real writer’s office. A desk, a reading chair, bookshelves that would be ample if I weren’t a book addict, my preferred laptop, a printer, a jar of pencils, a lifetime supply of file folders, a dedicated file cabinet. It’s hardly a dream since it’s always messy, but it works. It could use a major dusting, but that will have to wait until I send a finished manuscript off to my agent. Hmmm. Am I saying the reward for finishing a book is that I get to dust? I’m realizing as I write that that’s perverse. Chocolate first, then dusting?
Yours looks much less cluttered than mine, and not as dusty, either! So you must be doing something right.
ReplyDeleteFrank, yeah, was careful which side of the office I chose to photograph! And not too close up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Frank, Susan. You should see my office, it's a nightmarish mess...but I know where everything is :-) . That said, I envy people with spare, uncluttered offices.
ReplyDeletePaul, nothing spare or uncluttered here. I'm on two non-profit boards and the material from one in particular is in piles that get so large they slither to the floor when a cat leaps on them (almost daily). And you're giant steps ahead of me if you know where to find things.
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