Is Your Writing Space Spartan or Cluttered?

"Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark." -- Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard's prescription for the room where a writer writes contrasts greatly with the stereotypical cabin in the woods as well as the reality most of us face.

Our computers are often set up in a corner of a kitchen, bedroom, or family room in a typical house or apartment. Most of us have a view of a typical yard or a typical streetscape from a room that, al...