Becoming a full time author was always a dream of mine, and now I’ve been one for over eighteen months. Time flies!

During those months, I’ve constantly been wrestling with what it means to be an author, what it looks like to be full time. And a huge amount of that war has taken place on my desk.

First off: yes, I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to have my own desk in the first place! In fact, I’ve set up my study in the box bedroom of our home, so I have a whole room set aside for writing, as well as my countless bookcases (four so far…)

And my desk is huge. It’s a proper desk, absolutely massive, so there’s a lot of room to be playing with.

So what’s on it?

Obviously, my computer. It’s a Mac laptop, set up on a angle so that it’s the right level for my wrists. Can’t do much without that!

I also have a bunch of other tech: my fancy printer, a microphone and light set up, and a normal table lamp.

Then there are the things that I’m pretty sure no author is without. A red pen, a few black ballpoints, a notebook or three, water, tissues, and usually a book that I’m researching from at the time. And a photo of my husband and I, just when we got engaged 😍

And that…that is it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not that tidy! It takes a great deal of effort to maintain my desk at this level of tidiness, and honestly, it doesn’t always stay this way. At least once a month I have to do a big concerted effort to get all the scraps of writing and remnants of living off it. Okay, and the biscuit crumbs.

But I’ve found that having a pretty minimalist desk allows me to focus on what is really important: the writing.

What’s on your desk? Let me know in the comments!