I wondered why a writer’s desk, almost always comes with a messy surrounding as if chaos is inherent in their minds.
I can always see piles of old news papers and magazines, stacks of box files containing folders and maybe memos about the necessity to buy more folders and box files.
Not to mention books uselessly hidden behind other books.
Little of the desk surface is visible through piled notebooks and shuffled papers.
Then there’s that small statue of a Sumo wrestler, or else a life size statue of a small Sumo wrestler.
Not to be outdone is the vertically striped glazed earthen mug full of ball-point pens. I reached for one of those pens and finds that it does not work, as does the fifteen others.
Aha, I can even see VHS tapes. Damn, at this age of DVD’s this writer’s VHS tapes didn’t even moved out. There are several of them stacked on the floor.
Judging from what I am seeing from my vantage point, this writer only gets things under control by striving mightily against a force of nature that wants things to be disorganized rather than not.
But who cares when such desk could give one a Nobel Prize?
Wait, do this award come with a prize money delivered in the suitcase the next day? Does it bear a mark, “ Nobel Prize money: bank immediately or it will burst into flame.”?
Sitting in the center of the table is the computer, on whose keyboard the writer typed “damp” but actually wrote “dump”.
She is face to face with an item of technology that Ferdinand M. would not have known how to switch on. The writer barely know how to switch it on either, and she always wondered why does it ask her, "do you wish to report the error" when she don't now what the error is!
Oh maybe, through this miracle of a machine order can emerge from chaos after all.
Well, yes, it can, but only against heavy odds.
Because chaos is inherent even in the minds of those who writes, and even as she typed the last words of her sprict, scirpt, script.
Ahh... finally she reaches for the mug of coffee only to get a mouthful of ball point pens.
Does your desk look insanely the same, or very orderly? Do tell me because I would love to know.
4 comments:
As Odette knows compared to my "office" I prefer to call it the den. The writers room in the picture looks like the cleaning lady just finished.
I do find for research related writing the mess is a natural evolution of the need material and somehow I don't even need to take my eyes from the screen to reach behind and grab what I need without looking. Maybe because I have an idea of how my mind works. I don't think of one thing at a time but several as if a number of trains are arriving at and leaving a central station at once. Maybe in my case a busy airport is a better metaphor with some automatic air traffic control taking place. Before anyone asks yes I do belong to Mensa.
However for creative writing as in from the heart or soul or whatever you feel is the emotional center of a human I prefer the woods a pad and a pen.
As for Romantic writing. The tools used to write mean nothing. To whom you are writing means everything.
Believe me, its really compelling looking at your messy corner's nook, made you feel that you are always busy and in the middle of something while in fact there's not much to do. I remember long ago at my workplace when everything was so slow, i kept my desk clean and tidy all the time and my supervisor told me to scatter my stuff, fill up my desk with any unnecessary documents to show the management that I have workloads to do otherwise I'd be on the slash list. Sounds stupid but it works..lots were sent home but I had to stay coz I was busy..(???)
Very well written Odette, simply true and humorous! I am not a writer nor a bloggers but my desk is always filled up with books, documents, papers, pens and all sorts that I ran out of space to work on..i do the cleanup and sorting once in a blue moon it's not because I'm lazy but I just like the way it is...anyway nobody touches my stuff but me!
Neither desk of mine is clean... I dont think its anything pertaining to a sense of higher intelligence, jsut disorder, or a lack of the importance of a clean work area.... Some people thing that genius is disoganized or rather misunderstood cerebral aptitude, i think its just lazzyness.... (and I am quite that... at home that is)
My work desk, is a stringed instrument repair bench, and i keep it clean between reapirs jsut so that tools and things dont sratch and/or damage someone elses isntrument... BUT the areas around the bench is a pig-sty.... is it because I am misunderstood, lazy, or jsut that i have more stuff than shelves (and / or time to fill and organize those shelves)
I suppose we, and only we, know what is important and where it is when er need it, or at least the general area where we can find what it is we are looking for in the clutter that is OUR space :)
ED
Work space for me ideally should be clean..well arranged..with all things at reachable places and me on a movable chair..of these..yes i have two tables for me..the books are spread over..with occasional printouts..a list of topics assigned and that reassigned..a water bottle..the ups which came up on the table once because of some power issue has been still lying there!!..a phone to keep me connected with the happenings in the office..had a chair with wheels..the poor chair couldnt withstand my weight for about an year and broke recently..leaving me with a heavy chair which has limited my mobility..i clean up in between..but mostly all the books are spread out..have asked for a shelf to stack the books in order..lets see how it goes..but usually when i am writing a topic all the concerned books with concerned pages lie open until i complete my topic..in short..a mess..but a necessary one that makes it easier for me to write a clear topic..
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