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While at my writing desk I have often wondered about the sort of view writers have from their desks when they write.

It really makes me curious as read bloggers describing biting winters, flurries of snow, or walks by the bay, as to what it really looks like from where they write. Is there a television around, a pet or babies underfoot, or the post from an office cubicle, an airport, a (Bob, from Tokyo) hotel room ? Some of the bloggers (Cliff) offer an insight into where they work from, others talk about the feelings set off by their urban lives.

I love these tantalizing bits of information, and I find myself imagining the circumstances and surroundings from where a post was written. Someday, when I have the time to spare I am going to start off a photo blog just about this!

For now however, I’ll have to be content posting a picture of the view from my window as I write. This is from the gallery of photos I have talked about in my post Writing inspired by a Digital camera on my other blog.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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15 Comments

  • damyantig says:

    Darcnyt, whatever works for you is great, and it is not the view that you have that is important, it is the work you produce. Some of the best writers we know today (Stephen King is a popular example, who started writing in a laundry room), began on desks with no views at all!

    Thanks for pandering to my curiosity and becoming such a regular visitor to my blog….I like your comments:)

  • damyantig says:

    Mepulse, I am glad you are going to do a post on this, can’t wait to see it:)

    Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you would visit often!

  • mepulse says:

    I think this is a great post. I will let you know when I write my post about the view from where I sit when I blog. Thanks! I like your blog!

    Being a Better Me
    Two Hours

  • damyantig says:

    MmeM, thanks for the post and the picture. It was just a passing whim of mine, to imagine what sort of places other writers write from:)…..and your pic is beautiful!

  • MmeM says:

    Good question…responded: http://mmemihm.wordpress.com/

  • darcknyt says:

    Where I write, I see a wall. 😉

    The locations for computer placement are limited in my home; I have a large sliding glass door in view, but it only looks out onto a parking lot. Nothing beautiful. The passing of the seasons is marked by either snow outside or perhaps rain; not much else.

    It’s not very inspiring, but it is where I can work. It’s nothing I can fix right now, but I get lots of inspiration from other places. My wife, my children, and my good ol’ imagination. 🙂

  • damyantig says:

    Thanks, jeques, for the pictures, and the detailed reply. I find it all very fascinating.

    Do come back often!

  • jeques says:

    I always love to write on a table placed against a window so I could have a view of the outdoors while I write.

    When I was still in the Philippines, my writing table was placed against a window that opens to my garden. Please click link below for one of those I’ve written in that corner that tells something about how I write:

    http://jeques.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/writing-embracing-the-light/

    Since I’ve moved here in Chicago, I tried many times to find the best corner in my apartment to place my writing table and then finally found the best spot. My writing table placed against the window that opens to a quiet street outside with people passing by and trees that change with the seasons giving my writing rich inspirations. Please click link below for one of the articles I’ve written from this corner, my writing nook.

    http://jeques.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/new-swimming-strokes/

    This is a great post you have here. It made me think and indeed, the corner we choose for writing influence our outputs.

    I wish you well.

    ~ Jeques

  • damyantig says:

    Thanks for talking about your writing space, Kat. I know the topic would make for interesting blog posts, but I am wondering how to do it.

    Invite people to do a “The view from where I write” post they can do on their own blog?

    And then I can do a post featuring links to all those posts?
    I am not sure. What do you think?

  • damyantig says:

    Thanks for dropping by, Cliff. I was really intrigued by your post on your writing space, and it was the first that occurred to me when the idea for today’s post struck.

  • katcampbell says:

    From where I write I can see through glass doors to an empty field currently covered with snow. My office is the only space in my home that is totally mine, its filled with all my favorite things. You’re right, this topic would make an interesting blog post. Why don’t you issue a challenge?

  • Cliff Burns says:

    I’m fascinated by writers’ spaces too–I loved hearing about Philip Roth’s little cabin where he checks in every day, regular as clockwork, to write, regardless of all the laurels and awards he’s won. Publishing photos of my writing space on my blog was a difficult decision for me, a violation of my most intimate domain. But after I’d done it, I was encouraged by the responses and I know as a reader I welcome a peek inside a scribe’s mind and thought processes…

  • damyantig says:

    You caught me in the middle of editing the photo. It is a huge pic, and it was a struggle to resize and fit in here!

    Today it is 30 degrees C in Singapore, feels like 35 to me, with a 65% humidity. And since now you know I live by the sea, you can imagine what it feels like!

    I am curious: what does it look like from where you write?

  • darcknyt says:

    The photo didn’t show up too well for me, just so you know. But I know what you mean; when you spoke of where you write, it made me wonder at the difference between our locations.

    Right now, the temperature is in single digits Fahrenheit for me. I wonder how it is in Singapore?

    🙂