Someone recently asked me to name five places I like to go to write, places that lure me outside of my office but still get the job done. I’m finding it harder to think of than I thought, because where I go so much depends on where I am at the time and what I’m working on. I believe the kind inquisitor had an answer like “my corner Starbucks” in mind, but I really don’t have any place like that that I get away to on a daily basis. So I thought I’d use this space now to get my thoughts is order. The first few ideas are obvious to me:

Anam Cara View

1. Anam Cara, the writers’ and artists’ retreat that I try to go to at least once a year. I always gain a tremendous amount of inspiration from that place and inevitably get a huge amount of writing done. My next scheduled trip is mid-November, and boy will I need it!
2. My writer’s shack on Martha’s Vineyard, which I most recently wrote about here.
3. I find I always come away with ideas and I’m constantly jotting them down in some notebook, whenever I take myself out to dinner on my own. I think the combination of a little wine, some solitude and a tinge of paranoia makes me fell enough of an outsider and observer to get the words flowing. I also wrote more about that recently here.

And now this is where I get stuck. My next two places are imagined. A few months ago I would have said they were fantasies, but happily, these two fantasies are becoming reality although they are not quite there yet. But still:
4. My office at SOAS. This year I will be the Writer-in-Residence in the SE Asia Department of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. At first, I assumed I’d be a bit of a wandering minstrel, meeting with people and doing my schtick wherever I could. But it now seems I will be able to use the office of a professor on sabbatical and so, for the first term at least, I am imagining myself going to “my office” at the university for a full day each week, meeting students and holding small workshops, and then, when I’m not needed, closing my door and doing my own writing. It sounds like bliss and I can’t wait!
5. And lastly, those dedicated followers of all things Guiney will know that we have just moved from our house of seventeen years to a smaller flat in a way cooler part of town. The front of the building juts out like a series of pie pieces and each flat has its own which is used as a sort of indoor-outdoor space. My fantasy has been to place a good chair and footstool, plus a small table in there, and use that as a get-away within my own home, a place where I can sit and dream and gaze out at my new view. Although the furniture isn’t here yet, the view is, and so this can definitely be added to the list.

So there they are, my 5 places to write outside my office. What about yours?