In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Wall.”
I build walls around me when I write in Texas. Maybe it’s because there’s so much space in that house compared to the one in Toronto.
The walls I build are displays, where I cover the surfaces of the large blank walls with my writing plans. This year, I moved to a new section of a large empty space just so I could have a fresh stretch of wall to festoon with my plot maps and word count targets and the like.
I love the idea of these organizational walls. I’ve done this before, though with index cards rather than in a map, and found the display very inspiring. Did the wall work this time? Sometimes. But there were times when I had to drag myself to the library to escape the expectations the wall was reflecting back at me.
This writing sabbatical year is over in one week – and since I’m spending my last 2 weeks traveling (and attending the South By Southwest Conference in Austin – & promise to blog about it soon) I’m already missing my writing walls.
I like the idea of plotting out your writing on the walls. And, they actually look like art work too! And I like your post title–because, sometimes, I bet you do “hit a wall” and can write no more. But your writing walls keep calling you back. Nice post!
Thanks for this – I find them a lot like artwork too – until the big one with all the coloured index cards started shedding cards, and leaving sticky tape marks! That took a couple of years, though 🙂 Visually very motivating though, especially when I keep refreshing them and building more.
You’ve inspired me as well. Thanks Tena. I know from my academic days how important outlining is but for some reason I don’t do it when I am writing fiction. I like the visual aspect to this and think it could only help. Thanks for sharing.
I like how your ideas are all in one place and you can move them around to suit where they will sit in your story, rather than having a whole heap of loose pieces of paper floating around the desk or millions of notes scribbled in a notebook!
If only my millions of scibbled notes were housed in a single notebook! There are scores of notebooks and hundreds of pages. The Wall is a way of hammering some moveable sense out of those heaps.
TENA LAING 
I like the idea of plotting out your writing on the walls. And, they actually look like art work too! And I like your post title–because, sometimes, I bet you do “hit a wall” and can write no more. But your writing walls keep calling you back. Nice post!
Thanks for this – I find them a lot like artwork too – until the big one with all the coloured index cards started shedding cards, and leaving sticky tape marks! That took a couple of years, though 🙂 Visually very motivating though, especially when I keep refreshing them and building more.
I liked the creativity…
You’ve inspired me as well. Thanks Tena. I know from my academic days how important outlining is but for some reason I don’t do it when I am writing fiction. I like the visual aspect to this and think it could only help. Thanks for sharing.
I like the idea of total freedom to veer from the path, but having a roadmap is also freeing for me. Thanks for the comment, Dale.
I like how your ideas are all in one place and you can move them around to suit where they will sit in your story, rather than having a whole heap of loose pieces of paper floating around the desk or millions of notes scribbled in a notebook!
If only my millions of scibbled notes were housed in a single notebook! There are scores of notebooks and hundreds of pages. The Wall is a way of hammering some moveable sense out of those heaps.
Thanks for including me on your list of The Great WALLS of WordPress.