It’s Wednesday, so welcome to Behind The Scenes, pt.1. Us Birkbeck lot always seem to be going on about buying bigger desks and nicer pens, and the physical setup of everything - which is funny, because writing must be one of the materially lightest crafts imaginable. And yet, the desire to get kitted out, to feel particularly prepared and configured for task is still there. Witness, the way people go on about stationery. So I thought it’d be fun to have a little look round the idiosyncrasies of my room. As they pertain to writing, anyway. You wouldn’t wanna see the rest.
Starting with the desk would be too obvious, plus it’s in need of sorting out. So let’s go with that bedroom stalwart, the Side Table.
1: This is a copy of Bonobo’s most recent album, The North Borders. Bonobo makes really good working music - for me at least, music to work to needs to not have any words, because they’d replace my own. Also, the cover is nice - I’m not super-visual, but it feels blue and fertile. And no, I don’t actually have my decks with me in London, so I just listen via youtube. Give him a try.
2: Sony Sound Recorder. I bought this during a massve Radiolab obsession when all I wanted to do was make radio. And you know what? I even did. In a way. And one day I’ll do it again, with fiction a well-produced audiobook truly adds something to a story. Might go into this more another time.
3: Le Kindle. The debate over Amazon’s digital dominance continues to rage but you have to admit, we wouldn’t be in this situation were it not for the fact that amazon/the kindle work really, really well together as a book-selling system. This thing has got me reading widely, and weirdly. Tip: use the ‘read a sample’ function to gobble up loads of different writing approaches and broaden your sense of what’s possible.
4: Lighter and candle. Working in the depths of winter’s dark is no fun, you might as well make it seem a little mysterious. That lighter also opens bottles. Just saying.
5: Teacup. naturally. Be careful you don’t use teabreaks as an excuse to stop.
6: This is a stack of note cards, the structuralist’s favourite. Getting a story out of your head and into physical form has a function, but an emotional value too - it makes it real, for the first time. This pile has actually become a little smaller since the picture, for reasons I’ll go into soon…
7: Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon is a lovely little book. Hand-illustrated and sparingly written, it espouses the myriad virtues of sharing what you make as you make it, virtues such as building an audience, keeping you on task, and - well, I’m halfway through. Buy why d'you think I’m doing this?
8: Make-your-room-not-smell-spray. I was skeptical too.
…and that’s your lot for Behind The Scenes #1. Hang around, and next week we’ll try another corner. What will we find? Let me tidy up a bit, and we’ll see. And let us know, what’s your sneaky side table tool?