The One Thing Creatives Need...Space

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Perhaps it was the way Professor G. shut the door on me when I ventured to knock and seek advice in reference to grades that seemed to be gliding across a thin sheet of ice.  Or the way she allowed all of us to just squirm for the remainder of our assigned two minutes if we could not fill up the whole time with our Virginia Woolf insights.  In fact, it might be the way during one of those moments in class that I fancied myself witty the day Professor G. repeated a word I used out loud luring me to repeat it again.  At that point, she got up from her seat and in front of the other students, wrote the word down on the blackboard only to highlight the fact that it was not a word and therefore not welcome that day in class.   That particular day was within one of my spring semesters at Trinity College, yet the room felt like it was about 100 degrees in the middle of August.

All of these incidents may in fact be the reason why I loathed Virginia Woolf and did just enough to complete the assignments of that miserable class.  However, over the years, I've noticed fragments of what I read of Virginia Woolf's life and literature kicking around like specs of shiny glitter encouraging a level of curiosity.  A Room of One's Own and the importance of Woolf's insights in regards to nurturing artistry (specifically among women) is something that I can't deny as one who lives to create.  

The concept of having the physical space to create is one that has become increasingly important to me but arguably it is something that is key to all creatives who wish to live at all.  Think about it for a moment:

• How does current space or environment contribute to your detract from what and/or how you create?
• Imagine that you were able to have your own space if you don't already (regardless of exact size), how would it change the way you arrive at the want or need to create (either artistically, professionally, in the world, etc.)? 

Perhaps your space is a studio, a room, an apartment, or an office.  I have had different arrangements of some of these things and I noticed that whether it was a room, office, or my own apartment, the space acted as a cocoon that fed the creating.  Whether it was writing a poem, dancing, or attempts to nurture new ideas for various professional endeavors, the space played a key role in allowing creative growth.  For example, I have noticed the difficulty in producing intimate written work in the realm  of the random public versus forming the words with ease within a consciously created environment.

Thus, some of Woolf's writings did serve me well, but I would make a slight adjustment to the opening quote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”  I would say that in order for an individual to create anything, they must have a space of their own.