THE PRINCIPLE

Having a dedicated space feeds your creative mood

I hope that, like me, you have a great home office or study, lined with bookshelves with one of those ladders that goes around on a rail, a roaring fireplace, a view of the Thames, and of course a manservant who brings you chocolate when he intuits that your creative energy is flagging.

All right, I lied. I don’t have a view of the Thames.

Or a few of the other things. At this stage I am lucky enough to have a nice home office, but at other points I’ve had to make do with a desk in front of the window of my living room, and, once, a tiny table in a room that flooded whenever it rained.

Some set-ups are better than others, obviously, but here’s the important thing: you deserve a space, however small or large, that is yours and yours alone.

If all you can find is a computer table in the kitchen, that’s fine, but make it off-limits to the kids and anybody else. Mark your territory with some stuff that you find stimulating (more about this in the next section). If you want a plant but don’t have much room, go for a little cactus (which also discourages cats from settling down on your desk).

IKEA and others sell desks that can be closed up easily and take very little room. You can make do with even less by creating a portable office. This might consist of your laptop, some notebooks, an accordion file and some framed pictures that you put on the working surface (like the kitchen table).

However grand or modest it may be, remember: you have a right to your own creative space. Insist on it!