WHAT'S ON YOUR DESK?

JACQUELYN           MITCHARD

What do I need around me in order to write? Let’s first consider what I might want.

On my desk, I’d want a box of Candinas chocolates, a copy of the contract for a nice big movie option and an Oxford English dictionary with an antique magnifying glass on a stand.

In fact, I don’t have a desk.

If I write at home, it’s my bed, which has its advantages (naps to quell fits of despair are always near at hand and can be referred to as “thinking”) and its disadvantages (naps to avoid working or wrestling with a particular scene are always near at hand and can be referred to as “thinking”). 

I have my manila folders (one for each character or situation, from Mary to Miles, from strep to sailboats) surrounding me like an oversized ladies’ fan, of which I am the handle. I need my Ugli doll, Doris. 

Long ago, when the earth was green, I was a smoker; and when I quit, I switched my addiction. So I have a cup of tea (actually many cups, as there is a sensual delight in a fresh teacup). I have a water bottle so big it falls just short of a jug. If I am away from home, I have a framed photo of my children and my husband. I sometimes have music, although I love music too much so that, unless it is part of the plot, I prefer silence, the chatter of people, the sound of police sirens in the city, song of birds and the whicker of horses in the country.

But the most necessary item is the ancient Roget’s Thesaurus paperback (bound three times by the local copy shop when its cover fell off: Each time, the guy there said, “You know, you can buy one of these for five bucks.” That isn’t the point. When I was a reporter, I borrowed it so many times from my friend Tom Schmidt that he finally threw it at me and told me to take it and go write the great American novel. I haven’t done that … but I know I can’t do it without Tom’s thesaurus). I also have Rodale’s The Synonym Finder and my rhyming dictionary -- although I don’t write poetry. 

I have a stack of books I need to read and research for articles I need to write beside me so that I will be inspired to keep working on my own task.

And I have Hobbes, my real-life best friend, a six-year-old mutt who thinks everything I write is brilliant and really knows his Shakespeare.

TUNE IN TOMORROW
(1990)

Written by:
William Boyd

Starring:
Keanu Reeves
Barbara Hershey
Peter Falk

In 1950s New Orleans, a writer manipulates a hopeless romantic and the older woman he loves 
for the sake of creating 
the perfect story.  

Woof - the deep gruff bark of a dog.
      “Woof, woof,” said Baron, as if he knew the answer.

Wolf – to devour voraciously.
      “Good grief, can you wolf that cake any faster?” 

A MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF WRITING

In the winter of 1892, a young writer and his new wife rented a small cottage on a farm near Brattleboro, Vermont, for ten dollars a month. A far cry from the writer's birthplace: Bombay, India.

His workroom was seven feet by eight, and from December to April the snow lay level with its windowsill. In the stillness and suspense of those chilly days, inspired by the birth of his daughter, the writer's thoughts drifted back to a tale he had written about a boy brought up by wolves. He also remembered the Masonic Lions of his childhood's magazine and a phrase in H. Rider Haggard's story, Nada the Lily. Combined, these little memories sparked his imagination. "After blocking out the main idea in my head," said Rudyard Kipling, "the pen took charge, and I watched it begin to write about Mowgli and animals."

The jungles of India came alive in the bitter cold of Vermont over a hundred years ago. And to this day, children all over the world are still reading The Jungle Books. 

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DEADLINE:
September 15, 2007

Great storytellers are read, not seen. They let their characters do the talking and the listening and the getting in and out of trouble. Still, no law says they can't make a cameo appearance. Are you ready for your close-up?

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