My New Writing Space

This morning as I drank my coffee and ran through some of my favorite blogs, I stopped in at Writer Mama ( http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/wmbtsg-day-seven-make-comments-to-this-post-to-participate/) to enter into Christina Katz's contest and I read this post about your ideal office spot.

My office is in my kitchen, like many of us, but I had built myself into a little office prison. My desk faced the window- sort of- but mostly it faced the wall, with my back to the room. I thought this set up would cause me to block out the rest of the world. Today I figured out that sometimes when we try to hard to block others out, what we wind up doing is blocking ourselves in. This isn't a wise idea- trust me.

I started freelancing because I loved the freedom it gave me. Lately though as my self- imposed walls got higher and higher with books I want to read and research I needed to file, invoices, bills to pay, receipts for stuff, a magazine or two, CDs, DVDs, stuff and other stuff, I started losing all of my freedom.

I live in a duplex with my oldest daughter and her family downstairs and my teenager and I upstairs. I love living here because we all have our own space, yet we can hang together whenever we want. The problem was, as my work space turned into a prison of paper I always felt like I had so much work to do I couldn't take any time off. Except, I would sit at my desk and get lost in the chaos and not get things done anyway.

Bottom line- I told my daughter Kaity that I needed to organize my office and she jumped at the opportunity to come up and help me. We rearranged my desk so I see out into the room, got rid of a bunch of excess stuff in the room, put some things away in other places and turned my office into a real office that is open, and pretty and functional and so freakin' loaded with peace and serenity that I can't stop smiling.

WOW! Is your workspace a beautiful place to be in? Can you breathe? Get rid of your self imposed walls and open up your space. After all, isn't that why you became a freelancer in the first place?

Thanks Christina, you Writer Mama, for the inspiration. Thanks to my daughter Kaity for being so very amazing. Thanks to Kelsey and Trevor and Hailey for letting me be the luckiest Grandma in the whole wide world because I am YOUR Grandma.

Happy Grandparents Day to everyone! If you aren't a grandparent yet, you have one. If you don't, well, find someone to tell thank you and go enjoy your freelancing life.