Where I write

Where I write

July 13, 2011

View from my Writer's Window


When I sit at my computer, at my desk at home, this is the view outside my office window. My office is on the second floor and you can see the vines dangling from the townhouse next door, the neighbor's ladder which he stores on the top of the lattice roof patio, and the big tree to the right.  There are also my jangly things in the window. I always imagined writing from a room with a view of the city, or a window which looked out onto a garden with butterflies dancing and bees buzzing, maybe a fountain gurgling. If you look at the view out my office window, you'll see a ladder. The bachelor who lives next door stuck that stupid ladder up there so he doesn't have to see it. He is also the neighbor who gets drunk and yells at football games playing on the TV he keeps on the patio. Here's a view I wouldn't mind having out my office window. It looks quiet.

This was taken from the eleventh or so window of the Bayfront Hilton in San Diego. So serene and pretty. Now some writers prefer not to have a window with a view. Or no window at all! These writers believe it is a distraction to look at anything but the computer screen or, even still today, pen and paper. Without a view, the writer's focus is on the inner, rather than the outer, world. Beautiful worlds can be created with the imagination. I can understand this as I have the attention span of a fly and any bright and shiny thing that comes my way can distract me. Though I wouldn't mind so very much if my office here in Arizona had this view. This was taken just a few miles from my house.
 Right now with temperatures soaring past 100 degrees,this view might just make me thirsty. I guess it's not so very important where we write as long as we can stay focused. Now and then I look out my office window hoping to see something interesting but the air conditioner is still there on the roof and an empty plastic containe, so I look at the blue sky and tell myself just be happy I have an office all. The other day a hummingbird actually did fly by the window and I was so excited I emailed my friend and told her. Oh but I sure wouldn't mind this view, either. Chicago. The Sears Tower. I would feel important just writing from a window with a view of the skyline of the city where I was born.


Still, I shouldn't complain because when I visit Colorado this is the view
I have outside the window where I sit and write. Well, where I'm suppose to be sitting and writing when I'm not going out to eat, or going to thrift stores or sitting on the porch drinking wine.
What's great,too, is that these deer do not drink beer and yell at football games. The house across the field is empty  or else I would probably find a reason not to write and instead watch the coming and goings of people in that house. If you look at the back window of the cabin, the one all the way to the left, there are no curtains. My friend said a young biker couple, meaning they rode Harleys, used to live there and they didn't seem to care that the window had no curtains. Let's just say they didn't mind being naked. I shall keep this blog G rated, but I can't help think maybe it wouldn't be so bad if people did live in that cabin again as it might help me write my romantic scenes. Unless the new people get curtains. Or maybe I'll just be glad that the middle-aged beer drinking loud mouth (not to make too fine of a point about him) neighbor who lives behind me doesn't have a window which faces me. I better just appreciate that all I have to look at is his ladder.

I'll end with a quote by a woman named Ella Wheeler Wilcox which gave me the idea for today's blog:
"Let there be many windows in your soul, that all the glory of the universe may beautify it."

5 comments:

Rita A. said...

Love the quote and all your views...except the ladder. I don't have a window near my desk and when my mind needs to wander a bit I get up and roam and don't do any writing. So I prefer coffeeshops. I can look up and think about the people around me and clear my brain for that instant...then go back to writing, with pen and paper or computer, with a fresh thought. We can always find a view.

Pam said...

I very much enjoyed your blog today. I also love looking out my window and seeing what is outside. Like Rita, I also enjoy coffeeshops. I like watching people. They give me ideas for characters.

Anonymous said...

I love your wind chimes! :-)

Expostulator said...

Bright and shiny trinkets, now we know.

Excellent piece, keep up the good work. In the mean time I am going shopping for shiny toys.

Stella said...

thank God for silent deer