A Writer’s Desk – and its Six Essentials

When uncluttered a writer’s desk is unproductive. But that’s just one way of looking at it.

This is how my desk looks now, at the time of writing this post.

View sitting in my chair.

Rather tidy. Tidier than it looks when I am genuinely at work – not just staring down at open notebooks. But the staring down is important too for it gets the idea-pot bubbling and churning.

View standing near the desk.

Another view. Still tidy.

And yet, so quiet and calm, circumscribed by the circle of light, it encloses and cocoons me, makes me comfortable and safe, and allows my imagination to soar (or burrow deep into whatever catches my fancy.)

And yes, there’s another way of looking at a tidy and uncluttered desk. It helps you to focus on that one thing that sits in its center (the notebook, for instance.) A tidy desk is sans-distractors.

And before I end this post, here’s a list of the Six Things that must be there on my desk, before I can start work.

Six Essentials of My Writing Desk

1. My macbook is my lifeline. I’m totally grateful to this awesome guy at Apple Bangalore, who got it revived for me. Even though you’ll never end up on my blog, I have to say this, “Thank you, Deepak.”
2. My notebook.  I love notebooks. I know that a lot of writers are notebook-hogs. I buy them all the time, and I’ve got a whole shelf worth of notebooks in all shapes, sizes, and covers.
3. My pen. I love pens and pencils and brushes – tools that help me craft my stories and paintings. Though I type out my stories on my laptop, I create “verbal sketches” of all my bigger stories (5K words and above,) novellas, and novels in my notebook.
4. My lamps. I’ve got two on this desk, and four elsewhere in the house. I can’t live without their circle of warmth. It comforts me like my Mom’s presence would.
5. My water bottle that keeps changing – the one that I have right now has a sticker of “Follow your Dream” (Chinese, of course, or they would know that fickle humans are always chasing more than one dream.)
6. My specs that I can work without but my optometrist is adamant that I should wear them.

I hope you enjoyed this little deviation from my usual story posts.

I’ll be back with some news on the writing front – soon 🙂