The Writing Life: 5 things on my desk…

Around ninety-five per cent of my writing is done at my desk. It’s not a very tidy desk, but it’s at a window overlooking a wood, so the view is spectacular in all seasons. On the photo, taken from my office chair (you can just see my screen bottom right), it’s around five o’clock last Friday afternoon – almost sunset. I’ll spare you a photo of the desk itself.  #notaprettysight

I like my desk; we’ve got into a lovely writing rut, the two of us, and I need every one of the approximately 297 items that live on it. Here are a few of the most important:

1) My tiger. He’s really a screencleaner, but his main function here is to provide a wrist rest while I’m using the mouse. If I don’t have him, my wrist aches all the time I’m mousing around. I’ve tried proper wrist rests, but none were half as good as Tiger.

 

2) My magnetic wobbly pen. The brilliant thing about it is – it never gets lost. You stick the pen into the holder and it stands up, ready to grab next time. No searching, no time wasted. Best of all, you can buy refills for it, so it’ll last forever. Of course, if my desk was tidier I might not have to search…

 

3) My computer specs. These are  especially designed to remove glare from the screen while you’re typing. The moment I put them on, my eyes say, Ahhhh! Writing a book means staring at a word doc for hours every week, and these really do make a difference.

 

4) My sticks bowl. One of my sons made this at primary school – I love it. I always save the day’s work onto at least two sticks, as well as having it on a cloud. No way do I want a repetition of what happened a year or two ago when I clicked something I shouldn’t have. Here’s the bowl looking pretty with just one stick – I removed another four sticks, three batteries, a memory card from a camera, a metal guardian angel, my Tippex roller, two paperclips and a 5 cent coin for the photo…

 

5) Last but not least – my sucky sweeties, to help when my writing gets stuck. These ones are from Aldi and with yoghurt, fruit and no sugar they’re not really unhealthy… are they? (Don’t answer that.)
(The red ones are the best.)

 

So there you have it, five must-haves on my writing desk. What are yours???