A place of one’s own: how to create your personal writer setting
When need meets bounder: ten practical principles on how to boost your write productivity when you are a freelance writer.
They call them the inspiring ones. A label meaning whatever you might take to staying motivated and boosting your creativity, as you are a freelance writer.
You need to be inspired, a part from a pitch/idea scratching out while washing your teeth or passing the vacuum cleaner. I mean routine deeds that make that idea arise and give you the chance to write, again and again.
Virginia Woolf spent her all lifetime searching for a room for one’ own. Out of the hinges of this metaphor, setting is one of the key-component to stress you are a freelance writer wanting to boost your creativity, then your productivity.
Setting means a place of your own, a piece of floor belonging to you and you only. A place where you can widely and freely claim your right to be a writer and a productive writer too.
One: “call me with your name” , identification
You do not need a big house to cut your space. You just need to indicate it with your finger like a not-yet-speaking-kid. You need to recognize it and then to define it and then to make it yours: with “yours” I mean that place needs to be imprinted by you. A kind of your body appendix.
It could be a piece of your living room that a “magical” pillar makes apart from the rest of the room itself. That piece around the fireplace (if you got one); that dresser in your bathroom, if you like watching your face in a mirror, sometimes, when you are writing; that desk in kids room; that table on the terrace; that corner in your bedroom facing the landscape outside. I mean a piece of space able to talk about you.
Two: “this place belongs to me” — personalization
Once you have chosen it, you have to personalize your space. It has to be wrapped by you, remind you, evoke you, call you.
How to do that?
Simply.
Have you ever said yourself “this is my motto!”; “this is my best ever favorite quote”or “this words make me thrill”?
Yes. What you have to do now is taking a cardboard, writing down your motto on it and enrich your motivating picture with stickers, photos from magazine, newspapers, whatever makes you feel somehow moved to that thing.
Ready to go ahead?
Yes? Find now a place to hang it. No place at all? No problem: you cad bend it over your desk and look at it sometimes, to “breath” the power of colors you used or the fantasy you infused into it.
Three: “true colors”, choosing colors
To be creative, you have to stay positive. Here you are one magic word for you: colors.
Try to bring into your space something red, orange, yellow, light purple, green. You can use those colors for drawing your motivation picture. You can have a little plant blooming in red or orange, or some flowers. Or a pillow. Something giving you a touch of creativity color.
Four: “inspiring tools”, books
Imagine you are on a desert island. What are the book your backpack is filled with?
So, now, coming back to your own place on earth, bring one o two of your inspiring and in-your-life-fundamental-books, next to you and use them as a silent guide.
Five: dethroning or getting away your devices
(sorry: this is a command): put away your mobile, you have to stay disconnected. To enjoy your breathe and feel the wave of creativity, your fingers are not allowed to texting; your eyes are not allowed to see the last follower your get on Instagram; your ears are not allowed to hear an incoming text or e-mail buzz. This place is yours. This time is yours.
Six: time to use
Accordingly to your mood. I mean if you are an under assignment freelance writer and you have a deadline to deal with, you certainly will use your setting in a targeted way. As for your normal routine, writing, making researchers to write on a topic etc., please respect your way to be. The one “before-dawn-I-wake-up”and “the bat inside me”; if you got another label that makes you comfortable it is all right. The important think is creating an habit.
Seven: perfumes.
Studies shown that by breathing scent you like the most, your creativity will improve.
Consider, then, for your writing setting to get your favorite scented candle, or your preferred air-fresheners.
For the records, these are the most inspiring scents: raw cocoa; peony; saffron; vanilla; cloves; incense; patchouli; sandalwood.
Eight : tidiness
Live the surface of the table plain, with your laptop, your notepad, your pens and your pencils.
Remember you are a pro: you know how to use words, so you need your tools. But do not snobbish contamination: a blank canvas, can be used to write down the headline of your article; a felt pens blackboard, can be used to your article outline. Or pick a symbol: a souvenir; that nice bottle of beer you drunk with your best friend. A cinema ticket or a concert one. Try to be as linear and tidy as you can while you are choosing things for your place because, as a writer you just experienced chaos.
Nine: outside
One of the magic of writing, even under assignment, event under deadline, even when you do not what writing, is the power of not having any setting, because the world outside you might be yours. You are free. So you might break all the above mentioned principles and just go outside.
Be wild as you can be, because everything is up to you, to your mood, to your being. Are you in search of a reassuring mirror to your setting ? Yes you can easy follow my advice.
Are you set on I-write-where-I feel-it-to-be-right? And yes just go outside and find your inspiring place.
Stay tuned on yourself and please do not deny your inner voice. Follow it. As often as you can. They call it INTUITION.
