My writing haven: Grad Study Nirvana

The clouds part. Angels sing a hallelujah. Trumpets blast their victorious flourish:

A.Hab. has submitted the first full draft of Chapter One
to her dissertation director!

And, in honor and celebration of the accomplishment of this goal, I am going to share with you the place that helped make it all possible: the faculty/graduate student individual study room. Folks, please, golf clapping only…this is a library after all.

I welcome you to…the new and improved Grad Study Nirvana!

View from the front, right-hand couch. This is the view I had while I studied for comps.

View of front right-hand couch, as well as little study cubicles behind a privacy partition.

Back of room--large study desks with private lamps for additional, focused lighting.

My desk with the lamp on--see? I was even writing the day I took these pictures!

When I was studying for comps, Grad Study Nirvana was not the glorious place it is before you. Sure, there were a couple of couches in the front and some tables in the back, but the furniture wasn’t nearly as nice, and there were no additional lamps for individual study. I walked out of Grad Study Nirvana in February 2009. I did not return until January 2011. That’s quite a long time. I think I’d like not to dwell on that.

Anyway. So, when I returned and found Grad Study Nirvana to look like this–with lots of seating, private lamps–I immediately fell in love. It is a private room that (I believe) is sound-proof against the general library din. (Yeah, you read that right. Din. As in noise. As in library noise…our library has become this crazy hotspot in recent years, so the undergrads gather and chatter. It’s quite distracting. Thank goodness for Grad Study Nirvana.) At one time, Grad Study Nirvana was office space for research librarians. But our library has seen massive changes recently that left it with a new coffee shop, newly built office space for librarians, new book-free gathering spaces (which absolutely get loud…I try to avoid the second floor as much as possible), and updated carpeting on all floors. I have always loved our library, ever since I was a young thing and my dad would bring us in for some air conditioning and a potty break before we walked into the football stadium. But now that Grad Study Nirvana has truly achieved nirvana, I am super-productive and happy.

I think all writers should locate their writing haven to help spur their creativity. If your writing space does not spur creativity…find a new haven!