What's it like in the writing space?

15/7/2013

Please click on the "comments" link below and write something about your experience in the Studio.

Jos Roemer

26/7/2013 04:01:06 am

From July 4th until July 16th I had the opportunity to work on a biography in the studio in Charroux. My aim was to develop a structure and a research question. Living and working in Charroux, enjoying the stimulating company of Alison and Jean, really was beyond my expectations. I was able to work about 9 hours a day in deep concentration. Being out of my usual zone brought about a lot of new ideas and insights. An inspiring delivery room! In the end I returned home with a sound structure, a clear and sharp research question and the first two chapters of the biography.
I certainly can recommend this place!

Alison Donaldson link

28/7/2013 12:10:35 am

Time to return your appreciative comments, Jos! It was so wonderful to have you staying in the Studio. It is a rare luxury for me to be able to talk to a fellow-writer about the experience of writing and composition. I also really valued your comments on my own draft writing (I was working on an article about 'Does history matter in organisational life?'). The only pity was that I couldn't read your drafts, as they were in Dutch!

Claudia Kappenberg link

28/10/2013 04:04:59 pm

I had the pleasure to be a resident of the writing space for five weeks in July and August this year, which is more concentrated research time than I have had in years. I had come with an ambitious plan, to rekindle and advance the writing for my PhD for which I had many disparate notes and vague beginnings but little substance. I had no idea really as to how far I would be able to get in five weeks but I was hopeful. The conditions were ideal; a quiet independent annex in a lovingly renovated house on the edge of a little French village in the middle of nowhere, with the company of Ali and jean, plenty of sun and a large garden, and I enjoyed every minute of my stay. Somehow everything was a pleasure, the getting up and doing yoga, the lovely breakfast out in the garden, the first bit of reading and fresh thoughts for the day, the writing, the pauses, the conversations over lunch or dinner, and views over the village from across my desk, the swims in the local river and the walks through the countryside. Not to forget the apricots and the fresh thyme and the vide grenier in sweltering heat. I worked everyday, mornings and afternoons, reading and writing and rewriting, and the work flowed from the very first day. In my usually fragmented everyday I can barely focus on something for more than an hour, and I had forgotten what it was like to just keep working and to continuously be productive in formulating ideas, in identifying gaps and being able to pursue the issue – for a whole day if necessary - until I had the missing link. In summery I surveyed my existing scraps and notes, I laid out a structure for the interweaving of research and reflection, I drafted two chapters and sketched out a couple more.

Part of the experience was that Ali and Jean read some of my first drafts and gave me valuable feedback as well as a sense of a readership to whom I could address the text. I became very interested in Ali’s notion of the social life of a document, and I am convinced that the parts written in Charroux would not have been the same had I worked in isolation or back home. I became very aware of the details of village life and the small gestures and exchanges with the neighbors, the sense of community and shared space. Even now when I pick up the threads I take myself back to this very particular place, and write.

Writing in organisations

What's it like in the writing space?

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