Ass In Chair. Well, sort of....
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 2:58PM in Alexandra Sokoloff So this is me in my office.
HAH. Nobody really believed that, right? I didn't think so.
Your first clue is – I’m dressed. How often does that happen? Not bloody often. Second, books belong on the floor or under the bed, not neatly lined up behind glass. (Who has glass bookcases anyway? People with full-time housekeepers, or too much time on their hands, that's who.). Third, I’m in a chair. Sitting up. Granted, it's a very lovely chair, but if I actually wrote like this it would mean that all my best ideas would be draining down into the floor, not to mention what it’s doing to my back.
But we’ll get to my ergonomic theories in a minute.
The photo isn’t a total sham, actually – it’s a place I do write, and write exceptionally well, the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines, a writers’ retreat where I go a couple times a year with my fabulous NC writing posse, and the real-life haunted mansion on which I based the haunted house in THE UNSEEN.
But this is really where I write:
Yes, a couch. Lying down on it, with my Mac Air on my lap (which can get really hot, I haven’t worked that out, quite). I do the requisite eight hours, give or take, of Ass In Chair, only with me it’s Back On Sofa. On a very difficult day it will be Back In Bed (writing, not sleeping). I do this because it doesn’t feel so very much like working that way, because it’s easier to keep the cats off the keyboard, and especially to protect my back. Let me clarify that I don’t have a bad back. In fact I haven’t had a single back problem for at least ten years. But I am pretty sure I don’t have back problems because I’ve been lying down to work for the last ten years. Writing for as many hours a day as a professional writer has to write is VERY hard on anyone’s back; there are whole seminars on the issue. We all find our ways of coping; mine is to keep my spine relatively aligned throughout my work day.
And the couch thing could actually have something to do with my very first impressions of the writing life being old episodes of The Dick Van Dyke show, in which - when he wasn’t pacing - Rob Petrie was always lying on that couch in the office as they worked. (I had a hard time with Rose Marie always doing the typing and getting the coffee; I deliberately can’t make a decent cup of coffee or operate a stove to this day. I did seem to pick up her dating habits, however.). As a matter of fact, if you look at just about any old movie about screenwriters you will mostly see them musing while lying on couches, usually (if male) tossing an old tennis ball idly up in the air, whereas authors in movies tend to sit at desks hunched over typewriters (and they don’t outline, either, they just put a blank sheet in the roller and start typing CHAPTER ONE. Yeah, right….).
Hmm. Maybe these movie depictions are why screenwriters get no respect.
Anyway, my couch is in my living room, and there are actually two, matching, and I go back and forth between them, because variety is the spice of life, and sometimes I sit for a while at a café table (not in a café) with high stools to accommodate my legs, also in the living room.
On one wall where I can always see it, or sense it, is this painting by my mega-talented sister Elaine.
The painting is called L'Esprit de L’Escalier (a phrase I’m sure at least Zoe knows well and one which pretty much describes the core impulse to write, if you ask me. ) And the painting to me encapsulates the writing process; I never get tired of looking at it.
And on another wall, one of Elaine’s drawings: a corner on the north side of the Berkeley campus featuring the late Rather Ripped Records.
There’s something about the manic energy of this piece that puts me right back in the manic energy of Berkeley, very useful for writing.
And of course I have index cards up on structure grids everywhere, some on tables, some on the wall. This one is sticky Post Its on a white board:
I’m working on three projects at once right now so I’ve completely taken over two tables and a wall in the dining room (who needs to eat?).
This is another one of my favorite writing spots:
I know, it’s weird, but I write really, really well on planes – I can get a solid two days work in during a cross-country flight. Unfortunately I don’t write so well in hotel rooms, but research trips are always magical and staggeringly productive for me, and as any one of us can tell you, that’s just as much writing as anything.
I know, now you want photos of cabana boys (see comment section of Stephen's post, which somehow took on a life of its own. Sorry, Steve...). But I'd much rather you post suggestions of cabana boys for me, with current contact information and typing speed, thanks...
Cabana boys aside, I have to say I have found this week of sharing workspaces more interesting than I possibly could have imagined. One thing I absolutely love about my author friends and the author life is that we all know EXACTLY what we all are doing, work-wise, at any given moment. The business side of it, the sales, will be different for all of us at different times. But the writing process? How we spend 8-10 hours or more of every day? We know intimately what all of us are doing - writing is writing, and we all live it, every day. It is overwhelmingly, as Rob posted, in our heads.
But a glimpse of these little personal quirks - how and where we sit, or lie down, in isolation or in public, as all this massive STUFF is going on inside our brains... or to put it another way, how we get that door to that alternate universe to open up inside us - has been really touching to me. I can't wait to read more - and hear more from YOU all about the inside/outside thing, your workspaces, everything.
Finally, I'd like to send love and sympathy to the families and friends of those lost on 9/11 and in all senseless wars. Peace, Peace, Peace.
- Alex
Reader Comments (49)
I'm in a motel room right now and need to find a comfortable way to work. My lap is a really long way from my eyes lying flat! Typing this on iPad which I can hold up close, but am switching to laptop for working...
I'm so glad that first photo was a fakeout, although I really like that chair. And of course you look gorgeous.
GREAT post!!
On a couch you can also compensate for your spinal curve by putting your feet up on the armrest.
It sounds incredibly slothful, but honestly, what's the difference between sitting up in a chair all day and typing... and lying down on a couch all day and typing?
Work output is equal but the comfort level couldn't be more different.
I suffered from the heat thing as a result of working with a laptop on my knees, and discovered that having a clipboard under the laptop solves the problem - and doesn't blog up the laptop's internal cooling fan. Good for the winter, though...
And I'm so glad you responded to Elaine's paintings. She's amazing - and writing a novel now - I might as well just hang it up right now.
LOVE your sister's work. Can understand why they have a place of honor on your walls.
Your sister's writing too? that's wonderful I'll bet your parents are delighted! <bg> Btw, I agree with Cornelia about that first picture
How do you write on a plane? I’d always think the guy next to me was looking over my shoulder, which I can’t stand. I love the painting and agree this peek into each writer’s world has been fascinating.
I've heard of the standup workstation solution but isn't that just hard on the knees or ankles?
And the plane thing - no worries about seatmates reading what I write - on planes I write longhand and even >I< couldn't possibly read my writing.
I love your sisters art. And I get the same sense of excitement from the drawing of the Berkeley record store.
And how can you write on a plane? When I try I get the guy in front of me going into full recline position, nearly snapping my laptop in half.
It's what I do. :)
The lying down thing sounds great. Too much time in a chair definitely kills my back.
HOW IS AMSTERDAM??? It's been ages since I've been there.
Oh, and the plane thing - I don't use my laptop on planes, too awkward. I write longhand. It impresses the hell out of everyone around me.
Funny how the lying down writing is news to some of you. Maybe it really is a screenwriter thing. Check out William Holden on the couch in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON.
Alex – When you said, “they just put a blank sheet in the roller and start typing CHAPTER ONE. “ You were talking about screenwriters, right? My knowledge of screenwriting would fill an index card, but isn’t structure God? Not many pantsers? Oh and I loved the Dick Van Dyke Show, Buddy had some of the best lines.
Men Unite! Let’s all go take naps.
The screenwriters lie around on couches tossing tennis balls up in the air. Or... well, no, I'm not going to get into ADAPTATION.
And yes, I was a personal trainer for a while, by accident.
Dudley, my cats aren't declawed either although I clip their claws weekly. I wasn't passing judgement though (sorry if I came across that way), just curious as to how Alex keeps the couch looking so new. Plastic caps hmm...where do I find them and do they actually work?
The new couch look is the benefit of a wide shot, and Murphy's Oil Soap, which is surprisingly good on furniture as well as floors. I often procrastinate by cleaning, just don't ask me to cook. In a close shot - you'd see plenty evidence of feline presence.
Oh, right - the cabana boy.
Man oh man I wish I could organize my works in those beautiful white boxes with post its. Wow. I admire my writer friends who work this way.
Me? I'll just light a candle and rub Ganesha's belly and hang on for the ride.
I haven't been showing in quite some time, which I know is kind of criminal, but I literally sold all of the art I had available for sale, either privately or through galleries mostly in southern and norhern California. (Alex is my most major collector, and I hope that doesn't predict a life of madness and darker things like in the Vincent/Theo dynamic!) My last big project was a full room mural.
Read the book. No one has ever done it justice.
Not sure how you do the plane thing, though. Too distracting for me. Especially if there's a kid crying. I'm usually sitting right in front of him. And when he isn't crying, he's kicking my seat.
I developed move about often work habits after a car accident. It took me a while to finish my degree because I was having so many back spasms. Then I realised that I can work (academically) in cafes with notebooks, usually with the sun on my back, and then switch to home, ( at my desk, at my dining table, on my verandah). I'm currently trying to transfer my cafe notebook habits to outlining. It's probably the closet I'll get to having my own cabana boy...having a barista bring me my coffee in the sun.
I'm giving the couch a try out too with your cushioning suggestions. I was a bit wary of the lure of my couch as I started writing there one night and looked up about 5 hours later. Neck stiff, back a little tender . I did feel productive, but I'm trying to look at developing sustainable work habits here.
Which is part of why I'm enjoying seeing so many different ways to work here. The other part is probably just being nosy. Again thanks for sharing.
Also, I work out every day, usually mid-day or so, which hugely helps.
Or maybe not seeing what you're writing is a way to beat down the inner critic?