Issue 20: Creative Spaces
Issue 20: Creative Spaces
And what I REALLY learned in school
Hi friends! Happy summer! Is it hot out there, or is just extremely hot out there?
My daughter is in Pre-K and so each day, I get a glimpse into the things she’s learning in school. The fundamentals. The basic knowledge. These things that she’s experiencing for the first time got me thinking about the stuff that I learned in school… and how rarely I tap into most of that knowledge. Sure, maybe I retained a few historical tidbits… that basic addition and subtraction surely paid off… learning to write my name and a few other words, priceless. But I can’t say that I’ve used any of that required algebra to get through my day.
If I really take a step back and look at what classes were most helpful to me in life, then outside of learning how to write, it’s those computer classes we were forced to take in the seventh grade that paid off the most. “Keyboarding,” as they called it.
Back in 1997 the John R. Lea Middle School in Apple Creek, Ohio had a whopping eight computers kept in a “classroom” that was actually a glorified closet that lacked windows and proper ventilation. Several times a week, my fellow students and I shuffled into this hot, stuffy “classroom” where we were forced to learn the art of typing. Our teacher—whose name unfortunately escapes me, but even at that age, I could tell he was what one might consider a “giant nerd”—was convinced that computers were the future, and thus it was imperative we learn to operate them. (He wasn’t wrong.)
Prior to this Keyboarding class, my only experience with a computer was during the fourth grade when our classroom got an early Macintosh that did little more than allow us students to take a trek down the Oregon Trail. (Insert your own dysentery joke here.)
In junior high school, the computer’s monitors were those old green-on-black CRT monstrosities. There was no gaming to be had on these machines. It was all business. Words and processing. My friends hated the class. They would rather tear off an ear than go into that stinky closet that smelled of overheating electronics. I loved the class. For whatever reason, there was something calming and relaxing about my hands dancing across the keyboard and making words appear on screen. Even then, I was typing around 75 words per minute. On those old, clacky mechanical keyboards, I made quite the racket.
The final exam for the class was having to maintain a something like 40 words per minute with 90 percent accuracy while—get this—our hands were covered with a piece of cardboard! That’s right. They didn’t let us look at the keys! But I scored off the charts.
And, hey, now I use a keyboard literally every day of my life, and I rarely look at the keys and, oh my gosh, now I type faster and louder than ever before. So, thank you middle school, for giving me this skill. Too bad I’m still terrible at literally everything else.
What Happened Last Issue?
In the last issue I talked about the writing up an upcoming nonfiction book to be published in 2025 by Penguin Random House. AND, I begged you all to preorder copies of Unit 44 #8 so the series isn’t canceled. (SPOILER: I’m going to beg you again further down in this newsletter.)
Issue 19: I Miss the Scholastic Book Fair
In This Issue:
Creative Spaces!
Project Updates!
Creative Spaces!
I’ve been thinking a lot about creative spaces. What’s the dream of every writer? To have a space in which they plant their behind and the muse snaps to their side, the creativity flows, and the words pour out.
I mean, that’s my dream. Sort of.
Look, I’ve lived and worked and written in a lot of spaces over my career. I’ve had great working spaces and terrible ones. But as much as I’ve dreamed about the ideal creative space, I’ve come to realize that it’s not the location that makes the words appear… it’s the drive. The determination. The grit. The space is simply an ideal.
However, those thoughts led me back to the various spaces in which I’ve worked over the past decade. I thought I’d use this newsletter to run them down. Alas, I either don’t have—or can’t locate—photos of all of them, so I’ll paint you a picture with words.
ORLANDO OFFICE - 2010-2013
This was a big one for me. My first real office. Located in slightly questionable neighborhood in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida, my wife (then girlfriend) rented a 2 bed/1 bath house. It was close to my then day job, close to the places we liked to go, close to friends. This place was great, made better by the back yard, of which backed up against a horse pasture. With actual horses. In a metropolis. Who knew such a thing existed?
I claimed the second bedroom as an office, complete with desk, a couch, musical instruments, and all my audio recording gear.
While I was still very much focused on a career in music at the time, this is the house where I started writing comics. I studied countless scripts here before diving in and writing my own. Projects written in this office include my crime-fiction graphic novel Chambers, and my heist graphic novel The Undoubtables.
What made it a creative space?
To be honest, it wasn’t. Not at all. I never made it “mine.” I never hung any decorations, and the walls remained the same… how do you say… poo color for the several years that we lived there.
It wasn’t the space that had me up late, tapping out comic scripts after my wife had gone to bed. It was the explosion of creativity and exploring a new artistic medium that drove me.
COUCH OFFICE - 2013
After 13 years in Orlando, my wife and I moved north to the Florida panhandle to live in my wife’s hometown of Port St. Joe. I took a job as a newspaper reporter in the sleepy, two-light beach town, and started learning more about writing than I ever thought possible.
Since we were living with my mother-in-law, and space was tight, we converted a storage area into a living room where my wife and I could hang out. That room had our IKEA sofa, a TV, a bookcase, and my desk was crammed haphazardly into a corner (where it didn’t get much use).
What made it a creative space?
I was working at the newspaper, going to school online to chase my bachelors degree, writing comics, and even took on my first freelance writing gigs while living there. I can’t even count the times that I nodded off on that couch, the laptop atop me. Looking back, that room (I don’t dare call it an office) is where I launched my writing career.
We lived in that space for nearly four years before moving on, but it’s where I had one of my favorite ideas to date… it’s where I came up with and wrote Unit 44.
SECOND BEDROOM - 2016
After leaving Florida in 2016, my wife and I (and our cats) landed in northeast Ohio, where I was born and raised. There, in the town of Wooster, we moved into a two-bedroom apartment. I claimed that second bedroom as my office. We lived there for almost two years before buying our first home. No pictures of this office seemingly exist, as though I purposefully tried to erase it from memory.
What made it a creative space?
While I don’t remember writing anything of particular note in that room, this location played host to another milestone for me. When we moved to Ohio, I had taken a job at the local newspaper (the same one where my father had spent his journalist career, funny enough), but quickly realized it wasn’t for me. The newspaper didn’t hire me as a writer. Instead, I was on a team that put together the layout of the newspaper. Not exactly the most inspiring thing. Oh, and I had to work until nine o’clock at night.
It was in this apartment than I had an existential crisis (one of many along the way!). I desperately wanted to quit my job and become a full time freelance writer. I’d spent the previous five years cultivating a client base, and felt reasonably sure that I could be successful at it. However, like most writers, I was scared to pull the trigger. Ah, fear. That devil of an emotion. The job at the newspaper was only paying a whopping $20,000 a year. Practically pennies. My wife became the voice of reason who said, “If you think you can make at least $20,000 freelancing, quit that job.”
I called my boss at the newspaper early the next day, expecting to leave an “I quit” voicemail. Instead, she picked up the phone. It was a very awkward conversation that I wasn’t prepared to have. But I quit my job and launched a freelance career. And I made just over $20,000 that year. I realize that’s still pennies, but it proved I was on the right track.
EXTRA BEDROOM - 2018
After purchasing our first house—a 3 bed/3 bath spot down the street from the apartment—I converted one of the guest bedrooms into an office. And by “converted",” I mean that I stuck my desk in the center of the room.
The one thing I do like in an office is natural light. This bedroom had a door leading to an exterior deck, but the door had no window. My first order of business was to buy a door with a window. I even hired a handyman to install it. That handyman had never hung a door before, so that was a long day, and I ended up having to help him.
What made it a creative space?
This office was wonderful and bright. In that room I wrote many things. The one project that pops to mind is the first nonfiction book in my Braving Britannia series (which went on to be featured by Wired and the TED Talks podcast Far Flung!). In fact, just when I was beginning to think this was the most productive creative space I’d ever had, my wife and I had our daughter. And our daughter needed a playroom.
Thus, I was evicted and sent to… the basement.
BASEMENT OFFICE - 2019
It must suck to be sent to the basement, right? WRONG! It turns out, that this was the best move in the history of moves. The spare room in the basement was quickly painted and a new desk—the same one I use to present day—was installed to fill up the excessively large space.
The photo below is only representative of the earliest days of the office, as I actually decorated the walls of this one with a bunch of cool comic artwork I’d stockpiled over the years. The basement was away from the hustle and bustle of the upstairs world and allowed me a true disconnect from my work when I’d leave it behind and return to life above ground.
What made it a creative space?
Gosh, I even had room for a reading chair in this office. It was a place where I could really spread my wings and think, bouncing from the desk to the chair as the mood suited me. Truth be told? I miss this room.
But just as I had it set the way I wanted it… We moved.
DREAM OFFICE - 2021
I’m not gonna lie… this one stings a little.
After having our daughter, my wife and I decided we needed a bigger place. We traded in our 1,600 square foot home for something a tad bit bigger. The word “tad”is misleading, because our next house was 4,000 square feet. It was massive. And one of the main reasons I wanted to live here? The office. Check it out below in all its glory.
I could fly open the french doors onto a screened-in porch to enjoy the months of the year when it wasn’t snowing. I could watch wildlife through the massive window. I had room for not only an office, but an entire living area complete with seating and TV. It was everything I’d ever wanted in an office. But alas, it was not meant to be.
It turns out that kids get sick a lot. The main bedroom in this home was downstairs, but the rest of the rooms were upstairs. Far away. (Miles away, it felt like.) We couldn’t have our infant toddler alone all the way across this stupidly large house. We needed her close. And the only other room on the ground floor that we could put her? You guessed it. My dream office.
But, hey, you do what you gotta do right?
What made it a creative space?
I mean, JUST LOOK AT IT. However, I wasn’t there long enough to create anything of note.
BLUE HELL - 2021
Facing my second eviction in as many years, I hauled everything out and moved into one of the upstairs bedrooms. It was awful. The view was nice, overlooking our back yard, but the house was old—like, 1945 old—and all the heat lifted straight to where I was sitting. The carpet was a terrible shade of dark blue, and the wallpaper featured scenes from the revolutionary war. I felt like I had stepped back in time… to approximately 1945, or maybe 1775.
I refuse to share photos of this space because it would make you sad.
What made it a creative space?
It wasn’t. I spent most of my time in this room being utterly depressed, if I’m being honest. However! My wife and I eventually came to our senses and realized we had gotten in over our heads with such a big house. The truth was, it was too much to maintain, and we didn’t even want to be living in Ohio! So, after just one year there, we sold the place and got out.
EXTRA BEDROOM OFFICE 2.0 - 2022
Landing in Wilmington, North Carolina last year, we rented a 3-bedroom house, and I adopted one of those bedrooms for my workspace. The room was a definite upgrade from Blue Hell™ and had tons of natural light. Knowing that we’d only be staying there for a year, I didn’t do any decorating.
What made it a creative space?
The large sliding glass door/window provided the natural light that drives my creativity, and this has been a wonderfully productive space. I wrote my book for Penguin Random House here. I wrote the entire script for The Oddity here. I wrote lots of newsletters from this room (including the one you’re reading right now!). It’s been a good space.
However, it’s time to say goodbye as we move again later this week.
NEW OFFICE - 2023
That’s so many offices that I want to barf. While I’m not excited to be moving again, I’m happy to do it if it means we can NOT move again for many many years.
We’ve enjoyed Wilmington, NC and decided to stick around. In fact, we’re closing on a townhouse tomorrow. I’ve claimed the bedroom on the ground flood as an office and I look forward to making it a space that I can personalize so it will be comfortable and inspirational for years to come. For the moment, it’s a blank canvas. That’s pretty exciting.
At the end of the day, it’s not the space which produces creativity. It is ourselves. Our drive. Our grit. You can’t wait for the location… the space… the vibe… to be perfect. It’s a cop-out. You cannot blame the space. You can only blame yourself.
Instead, I recommend identifying those elements that make you comfortable. For instance, over the past 10 years, I’ve discovered that I need natural light to get into the zone. But I can work just as efficiently at a kitchen table, a sofa, or a room provided there is a window nearby. What can I say? I’m a gazer.
The creative space will almost never be ideal. Sometimes we get lucky and create a spot that helps us sink into the creative flow. But most days, it’s up to us to drag the muse kicking and screaming to your side. That’s what we do as writers. That’s what we will always do.
Just don’t ever, ever, EVER put dark blue carpeting in your creative space.
Project Updates!
Unit 44
While the crowdfunding campaign for Alterna Comics’ August release preorders (which included Unit 44 #8) is over, you can still order your copy in advance. We fell 66 orders short of our goal (300 preorders), but the irreverent sci-fi/comedy series can still avoid cancellation if we crack 300 sales before the books go to print next month.
Wanna help us out? Hit the link below to snag your copy!
The Oddity
Hey, Wes… How’s that middle grade graphic novel coming along?
I’m so glad you asked!
The Oddity is moving right along, with artist Aleks Jovic having completed work on most of the pages that will be included in my proposal to literary agents. As of this writing, only two pages and the book’s cover remain pending. In fact, I look forward to starting the pitch process in early August.
In my next newsletter I’ll reveal the name of this graphic novel and share the completed pages with you! In the meantime, here’s some peeks at some of Alek’s polished panels:
The Incoming Storm
I’m still waiting to hear back on what edits are needed to push this manuscript to the finish line, but I’m super excited to revisit this book with fresh eyes when they come back my way.
The Writer’s Path
The 2023 edition of The Writer’s Path is out! This is the second-annual edition I’ve curated. The first volume, released in 2022, collected essays from 10 graduates of Full Sail University’s writing programs. In those essays, some very talented writers shared their path to success, warts and all. In the 2023 version, 8 more graduates share their amazing tales.
I love curating The Writer’s Path and I love to see how each writer approaches their essay. Is it all business? Is it nontraditional? Do they play it safe, or do they experiment? There’s no wrong way to do it, but I love the deluge of information and creativity that I get to read each year.
The FREE ebook is full of motivation, and inspiration. Those looking for a peek into the writer’s life, and what it takes to success should drop what they are doing immediately and check this out.
I can’t wait to do it again in 2024!
Hey, how’d you get in here?
I’m Wes Locher. I’ve been writing professionally for more than a decade. I write comic books, video games, fiction, and nonfiction. I write whatever seems fun, cool, and inspiring. I also love helping other writers to demystify the process of making a living through words. This is my newsletter.
That's some craziness there! I've never had a solid office space at all. I work at a coworking space right and that's been a creative space because I get to talk to all sorts of people (some of which have hired me to edit some stuff).
I've been thinking of visiting Wilmington because I'm a bit OTH fan, and because it seems like a chill town and such. I'll definitely hit you up if I ever visit! Thanks for sharing your office journey.