“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”~Virginia Woolf
I’m thinking about Virginia Woolf at the moment, most particularly A Room of One’s Own, because I am lucky enough to be heading off to a room on my own for the next month, thanks to a residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska. I’ll be finalizing one book (fingers crossed!) and perhaps poking around in a new one. I’ll have time to walk around with my characters in my head and sticky plot problems simmering in my subconscious. I can spread and pile and sort all my scraps of papers every which way. I can go to bed whenever I want and wake up whenever I want. My errands will be few and will seem novel in this new environment. I can read the stack of books I’ve packed in my car.
There are many things I am grateful for, and tied for the top of my list are my husband for putting up with my absence and the people who start/run/support the valuable spaces artists need.
Also, selfishly, I’m grateful to see that Virginia Woolf also wrote this in A Room of One’s Own:
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Or write well, I’d have to add!
