A member of our local memoir group has diligently applied herself to writing her personal history. But she needs a bit of direction to tackle the sudden appearance of an enormous “elephant” in the room. How to get started? When and where should she write? What aspect of her memoir should she tackle first? Her grandparent’s stories or her own?

Good questions. As with all new endeavors, we suggest starting slow and simple.

Start with the Where…not where your stories take place, but where you start to write them down.

Cheri learned to write in kindergarten

Here are Cheri’s suggestions.

Start with recalling where you learned to write.

Do you remember where you learned to write? Take a minute to close your eyes. Try to see that space. Can you hear the sounds? Can you smell the smells? Can you remember what it felt like to hold a pencil for the first time?

Each morning, after walking half a mile to school, I lined up on the Kindergarten playground with new friends and triumphantly marched into a magical room. After hanging my sweater or coat on a row of low-hanging hooks, I sat with the other children on a large oval braided rug. I could hardly wait to see what my teacher, Mrs. Orwig, had planned for us each day.

Sometimes she read us stories. Sometimes we played. Sometimes we learned fun songs like “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” And sometimes she would seat us at large, low tables in short wooden chairs, and pass out paper and pencils. Just seeing the grayish paper with its horizontal straight and dashed aqua blue lines excited me.

Mrs. Orwig would go to the chalkboard and draw two parallel straight lines with her chalk, using a yardstick. Then she drew a line of dashes in between. Then she asked us to watch as she carefully drew a series of straight or curved lines to create a letter. Our letters never looked quite the same as hers, but over time our drawings improved.

As I sat in that room, with its huge windows that let in the light and warmth of the sun, I felt uplifted. I felt inspired. I felt totally at home.

A place and feeling of home

Feeling at home when we write allows us to mentally disengage from our surroundings. We relax into the atmosphere that allows us to create. In order to fill our papers with the memories and breathings of our heart, we need a serene atmosphere; preferably one filled with light. We need to be able to see the paper, notebook or computer screen well.

Find a comfortable place to sit

One of the most important things to put in a planned writing space is a comfortable chair. Take your time in selecting just the right one. Make sure it fits you properly and places you in a posture that supports the writing surface you have chosen.

If you’re sitting at a table, you have a wide variety of choices ranging from a comfortable kitchen chair to a more padded dining room chair, or even a beautiful armchair. Desk seating may be similar, or you might prefer an upholstered secretarial chair or office chair. If you are prone to reclining when you are thinking deeply, you may want to consider an executive chair with a taller back than a secretarial chair. Then you can lean back and maybe even put your feet up on a stool underneath the desk. A stool under the desk is also helpful when you’ve been “in the zone” for a long period of time and you need to put your feet up to improve circulation.

Select the “just-right” chair or sofa

I have several chairs I use for writing in different spaces. One of my favorite places to sit and write these days is at my mahogany writing desk. I found this desk on Craig’s list and it won my heart for reasons I will explain in a minute.

But the chair came first. I found it at a garage sale near the home we had just purchased, and I could not get out of the car fast enough. There, on the driveway, I spotted this incredible mahogany armchair upholstered in floral tapestry fabric. The chair seemed so rich and beautiful that all I could think was how wonderful it would be to sit in it and write. It became mine for a mere $20. Now It allows me to rest my forearms on its comfortable arms while thinking –essential for me with my carpal tunnel syndrome.

Another favorite writing chair for writing is my upholstered secretarial chair. It came to me as a gift from a dear friend when I set up my home office in the basement. It rolls, and I can adjust the height as needed in order to shift my position when I’m writing so that I can write longer. Since the seat of it is not quite as cushy as I like, I added a gel-cushion encased in a pillowcase.

But the chair I write in when I get up in the night or the wee hours of the morning is a big, overstuffed recliner. Here I can put my legs up, grab a lap-desk and a laptop, and soon get in the “zone” quickly. It’s not the prettiest of my three chairs, because it looks kind of manly, but once I’m sitting in it, I forget about the appearance of the chair, and just start writing!

Have adequate space to write

Give yourself enough “elbow room” to write your memoir. It’s pretty difficult to write when you’re limited to a corner of the dining room table piled high with things. Or at a tiny desk or cubbyhole.

My writing desk gives me lots of space. It is the kind of desk where a true lady would

have written love letters to her beau in the late 1800s. This desk, like it’s tapestry companion chair, is mahogany. It sits on beautiful, French-curved cabriole legs with acanthus leaves

carved on each “knee”. The surface of the desk features three inlaid sections of leather

decorated with gold foil-stamped borders. I absolutely love how it looks. I love walking into the room and seeing it on a patterned area rug. It practically calls to me to “sit down and write awhile.”

My writing desk’s former owner discovered that, while the leather panels look amazing, they do not provide a firm, level surface for writing. So the desk was fitted with a large piece of glass that allows me to have the look of the leather, while providing a single smooth

surface on which to write. It is not as large as an office desk (writing desks never are) but it is large enough for me to open a binder or a journal and write long-hand, or to use my laptop. It is also large enough to hold a typing stand on one side and a pretty brass lamp and flowerpot full of pens on the other.

The office desk for serious writing

That brings me to my office desk. At an ample 30” x 72,” it is much bigger than my writing desk. I work there when writing something that requires me to spread out. And because much of my writing draws upon documents, books, and research notes, sometimes a typing stand to hold these is not enough space. With my office desk, I can have a typing stand, but I can also pull out the drawers on either side and put a breadboard on top of them to create additional workspace. And because this desk is where I am typically polishing my manuscripts, and I need to see the past and current versions as I work, I have a desktop computer here with three monitors. This computer setup allows me to see not only the past draft and the present version side by side, but I also have a third screen I can use for pulling up the internet, email, or other files that I need.

Anne has two large Macintosh computers, old ones, but each has a unique function and specific applications for her writing projects. She still rearranges her desk space periodically to get more comfortable and efficient. This is where she tackles serious professional writing projects and engages with clients on virtual meeting spaces.

Night writers in the sky

Night writing is usually first-draft writing, so my laptop and lap desk is all I need.  Despite the lap desk having padding on the bottom, I can’t sit there for hours. Eventually my knees do need a break from the weight of the lap desk and the computer. Since I prefer a wireless mouse to the built-in mouse of my laptop, I tend to place my mousepad and mouse on the right arm of the recliner and I always use the floor lamp nearby. Which brings me to lighting.

Lighting for Writing

I have learned the hard way that nothing interrupts writing more than inadequate lighting. Dim lighting can lead to napping. And no matter how much I want to finish what I’m working on, if the lighting is too dim, I doze off. So, when I’m writing in the middle of the night, I turn the floor lamp on next to my recliner.

Overhead lighting is good, but you will want to experiment with different kinds of lighting. I find that if I work under LED lights for too long, I start to get a headache, which later leads to a migraine.

Table lamps are good as long as they are not behind you when working on a computer. I put a table lamp on my desk behind the screen(s) and off to the right. This position seems to allow enough light in the area without causing eye strain. You will want to experiment with positioning a lamp in different places and also using different types of bulbs, such as “daylight” or “full spectrum”, cool white, warm white, or others. Some light colors warm up the space and others cool it down.

You will find that the ambience in a room changes dramatically depending on the type of lighting and the color of the light. And that brings us to the overall setting for your writing space.

An inviting setting

Have you ever seen a beautiful window with a window seat flanked by bookcases? Or a private deck overlooking a beautiful scene? What about a beach chair in the sand underneath a shady umbrella? Such settings invite us to sit down and stay awhile. They invite pondering, musing, and even deep thinking. These are the places that are best for writing.

Although eventually you will shift your concentration from the scene before you to the writing you want to do, plan to be out in nature or in a beautifully decorated room.

If you’re into technical writing, you may be best inspired in a high-tech office environment. Likewise, if you enjoy writing for children, a space that reminds you of childhood may help prime the pump.

Make your own special space to go back in time

You will craft your own personal history in your own little nest or nook. Find the right chair, the right writing surface, the best lighting. Check thrift stores, garage sales, and Craigslist for great deals. Then fill your physical space with your favorite sights, so when you stare into space to recall a memory, your gaze rests on the familiar and loved. Have a smooth stone or favorite pen within reach. You may want something comforting to touch or play with as you compose words in your head. Daydream before committing words to paper or computer screen.

And the final piece of advice: Enjoy the journey into your memories.