A Room of One's Own

I need a place and a time to write.

I read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own in high school, and, much to my surprise, I hated it. First of all, it was much too long (Woolf expanded it from a series of lectures, and really, I do think it would have been better in lecture form), and secondly, I couldn't get my head around the idea that a woman needed to have a certain amount of money and space to herself to write. As Alice Walker points out, what about Phillis Wheatley, "a slave, who owned not even herself"? And I mean, what about all the men who have not had financial freedom as a precursor to literary success?

Now, though, I'm starting to get it. I'm starting to see how hard it is to write if you haven't the time or the space to do it.

When I come home from work, I don't have anywhere I can go to write. I could go in the bedroom-- but writing in bed is simply an invitation to fall asleep and have the cats play tag with the pages of my book. I could stay in the living room, but that's where my husband is, and he usually has the TV on, or is watching some great movie, and I get distracted by his wit and charm and snuggles and all of that. I can't write in the kitchen--there's barely enough room to cook, and nowhere at all to sit. And writing in the bathroom, perched on the toilet, would be kind of pathetic.

I'd go to a cafe, but I can't drink coffee in the evenings because then I can't fall asleep that night. This means that I can only go to a cafe on Saturday morning-- every other morning I either have to be at work or at church. And since Saturdays are my only real "day off" of the week, they're usually crammed full of things I didn't have time to do the previous six days: painting, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry. This Saturday I have to be across town at 10 AM to pick up my Angel Food order, and then Claire is coming to visit, so I won't have any time to be writing. Next Saturday we're going hiking, and since we've pushed this hiking trip back every single week for the past two months, I'd REALLY like to go before it gets too hot. I already promised Adam we'd go to the beach the Saturday after that...and then the Saturday after that my sister is coming to visit...

I just feel like I need a haven, you know? I need a place where I can go and work and not be interrupted or distracted, where I can be comfy and yet also be focused.

Does that place even exist?

Surprise!

OH HAI GUYZ!

Long time no see, eh? I've had a few crazy weeks, and I really haven't had much time to work on the book. But guess what I'm doing right now?

I'm printing it out!

Adam made a special trip to go and get me a printer cartridge so I could print this puppy. I decided that investing in a new cartridge was worth it, if it would help me move forward on this damnable thing.

This weekend I have to paint a bedroom-- but then I PROMISE I'll work on the book. And then I'll write witty and amusing things here.

Really.