I’ve always been fascinated by writers’ work spaces, but I have to admit I’m pretty intimidated by the photos of perfectly clear desks. Does anyone really work like that? Where are the notebooks and pens and stacks of stray books that normally overflow mine? Or, I should say, both of my desks, because I have not one, but two, writing spaces in our house.
When I first started writing, in a previous house, I had my own little corner office with a built in desk and a window view. I don’t think it was very ergonomic, but alas, no photos remain. When we moved into the current house, which is a turn of the 20th century Craftsman bungalow, I wrote in the kitchen or in the office I shared with my husband, neither ideal. When my daughter went off to college, I snagged her bedroom with glee—a room of my own! I wanted a big work surface, so I had a Shaker-style cherry table made and it must have seemed like I’d never use all that room. Ha.
Here it is today, surrounded by maps and favorite London photos, books and writing souvenirs (I have little keepsakes from most of the novels.) There’s a big monitor with a dock for my laptop, and the obvious addition from the last couple of years, the lighting and ring camera for Zoom. And of course the dog bed, because all work spaces need one.
It’s very cozy but I don’t do all my writing here, because there is writing space #2. We have a glassed-in porch off of our kitchen. It’s lovely in the mornings in spring and summer, with the shady west-facing view over the patio and back garden. I can let the dogs in and out of the porch door, and top up my tea or coffee from the kitchen. I started out with a little rolling table, but as time went on and I spent more and more time writing in the porch, I found a wonderful vintage library table at a neighborhood garage sale and my friend helped me lug it home. The porch floor slants, as it was originally a screened sleeping porch, so my husband had to cut down the table’s back legs to make the top level. It’s not very elegant but it works.
Most days I write in the porch in the mornings, where I can hang out with the dogs and usually the cats, and enjoy the view of the garden. In the afternoons, when the west sun hits all those windows, I move upstairs to the proper office. I do most of my editing on the big monitor, too. I don’t listen to music when I write and find a TV on anywhere in the house horribly distracting, but weirdly I like to write in coffee shops and find the hum of conversation cocooning. I’ve never managed to write anything remotely useful on a plane, however, so when I fly I just resign myself (such a sacrifice!) to reading a good book.
Deborah Crombie is a New York Times bestselling author and a native Texan who has lived in both England and Scotland. She now lives in McKinney, Texas, sharing a house that is more than one hundred years old with her husband, three cats, and two German shepherds.
