A proper writing space should look like a wizard’s study. It needs cubbies for stashing slips of paper with hastily scribbled ideas, a comfortable chair one can sit in for hours, a sturdy workbench close to a few electrical outlets, and plenty of interesting knick-knacks to jump-start the creativity. Here’s a couple from my office.
The salt lamp was originally my daughter’s, a purchase from a museum gift shop when she was in grade school. It fell out of favor in her bedroom decor and made its way around the house until it settled in the office. The Edison lamp was this year’s birthday present from the family, a steampunk-ish addition with lots of glowing filaments to chase away the shadows when I’m on video calls. The two give a nice rosy glow to the office at night and set a proper mood for writing, especially for fantasy.
The octopus decoration on my magnet board is there to hide the crap job I did mitering the frame’s corners. It also just so happens to have tentacles handy for holding a wizard’s bric-a-brac like my USB backup drive, a lanyard from the last writer’s conference, and a cheat sheet for the image files from the Lone Wolf solo RPG books at Project Aon. I don’t know when octopi became so popular that one could find a useful little guy like this for $10 at a local store, but I’m glad it happened. Cephalopods pop up everywhere in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and even the superhero genres with examples like Cthulhu, the Kracken, Daleks, mind flayers, and HYDRA’s mascot. So it’s nice to have that little touchstone when I’m flailing around for inspiration.
By the way, I just realized my octopus doesn’t have a name. Any suggestions?
