Our new series, Writers’ Rooms, provides Kathmandu Tribune’s readers with a narrative and visual snapshot where writers create.

I’m a really slovenly writer. Slouched on my bed, back propped up against pillows, with my laptop balanced precariously against my knees. And usually after a bottle of wine. My preferred style of writing wasn’t doing my back (or liver) any favors, so I appropriated the rather gloomy space under my mother’s staircase, opting for a more traditional environment to write within.

My ‘under the stairs office’ (a study in small space living indeed) forms my official writing space. Unfortunately our 19th Century end terrace house in Lancashire, UK gets incredibly cold in winter and so I often relocate to the living room to bask in the warmth of the fireplace, this time my laptop precariously balanced on my lap. And in the few and far between summer months, weather permitting, I’ll sit in the garden to write. But anyone who has visited Britain knows such conditions are more of an exception than the rule.

My only prerequisite for writing is to have no distractions. The lack of view helps with this, but the rumblings of the boiler located to the right of my desk (usually adorned with garish neon post-it reminder notes) don’t. The best solution is Spotify and a playlist that drowns out both the angry boiler and the background din of family life. The eclectic playlist (if you’re wondering) includes Air, Bright Eyes, Neil Young, Miles Davies and Talvin Singh.

The desk was purchased from Ikea specifically to fit into the awkward space in the hallway. It was in 2011, a time when I was writing part-time and trying to squeeze out a living from Ph.D. editing and the odd bit of development consultancy work. Moving abroad and returning over a year later I reclaimed my desk to write the bulk of Beyond Fate.

Behind the desk is a shelf built into the wall containing a row of books. Mostly mine, but some of my brother’s (the Bhagavad Gita is mine, while the Noam Chomsky is my brother’s). The rest are stored upstairs, making the desk relatively clutter free (unlike my bedroom). My book collection is quite diverse, ranging from academic Hindu texts to development theory, to yoga practice. I’ve also got quite a few language books, including French, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepali, Newari, Sanskrit and Urdu from my student days; the books remain, but the ability to learn languages still eludes me.

A friend recently lambasted me for being too materialistic. It’s true, I like ‘stuff’, and I need nice things around me to enhance my writing environment. There are a normally a couple of photos, one of me on my Gap Yah in Tibet (an exercise in narcissism indeed) and one of me and my best friend doing what we do best (messing around), but both have been removed as I write under a pen name. There are a few more photos waiting to be framed to hang on the white triangle-shaped wall space, but time and effort are lacking.

I also have a pot of watercolor brushes from a period last summer when I halfheartedly attempted to take up this new hobby. There are a few knick-knacks (or travel tat, as I call it) from my repeated jaunts across South Asia. Over the years this has crept out of my bedroom and can be found scattered throughout the house (a rice plantation hat on the wall here, a Lumbini Buddha there, oh, and that Ganesha masks from my Gap Yah). My desk has not escaped this – the Vajrayogini picture was a gift in Nepal, and the Buddhist prayer beads a present from a friend.

On Fridays, I work from home. There are a few work-related documents to the left of my desk and all my grown-up documents are filed in some semblance of order in a red steel box tucked away down the side of the desk. Trainers and a yoga mat are stored next to the desk as a continual reminder to be more active and head to the gym. And there’s always a coat or two hung over the back of my chair.

Nicole Donolla is the author of Beyond Fate, a collection of eight short stories that explore how humor, desire, and desperation accompany the universal concept of love, translating across geography, race, religion, and caste in India and Nepal. You can buy it here.

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