Writing for ResearchA room of one's own Emotion work. (Image: Teacher’s Work 1 985, Allen
& Unwin Australia)
So what I have said is not intended to lay down rules about writing programmes. It’s
mainly an account of my practice as a writer, and readers can take from it any part
that’s useful. But there are two issues where I would say something prescriptive.
The first is about clear time and place. In 1929 the great novelist Virginia Woolf
published an essay that named what women needed to be successful creative writers:
“a room of one’s own”, and five hundred pounds a year - a middle-class income in
England then. That’s the famous formula, and it works for men as well as women. But
Virginia also insisted on time. A writer needed to get clear of the endless demands of
house and family. That’s hard, for women who are under social pressure to do care
work.
A regular place to write, whether it’s a desk in a quiet bedroom (my writing place for
many years, though I have a whole study now), a cabin in the woods, or the dedicated
corner of a kitchen table, is an immense asset for a writer. University managers who