The Perfect Conditions for Writing

Would you like to write in an immaculate, sun drenched office? Prose pattering gently onto the blank page as you sip freshly brewed coffee, perhaps?

Nabokov’s wife apparently enabled his writing career to the extent that she was a wife, a cleaner, a cook, a babysitter, etc etc, [read all domestic and traditionally female roles], as well as a secretary, editor and substitute teacher. (More in this by Koa Beck.)

There are numerous articles on writing full-time – normally exploring the struggle of getting motivated, the worry about earning enough and the necessity for discipline. Then there are the subsequent plaintive responses from those who manage to squeeze writing around work, family and everything else.

If you’re writing full-time, you have the pressure to produce; without the excuse of being tired from work, or having had a rough day in the office. You also have endless opportunities to procrastinate. (You have them just as much if you’re fitting writing around work, but you also know that you’ve stolen that time and it must be staked out with sharp pointy things and noise-cancelling headphones.)

The real truth of it though, is that you’re never going to have your ideal writing conditions. There will always be something else you can do.

You’ve just got to sit down and write.

 

(Which is why I’m writing this, of course.)