Room with a Door

Why publishing on various platforms is good for cultivating your writing spirit. Having a room with a door to yourself is helpful.

This article is a modified version of my about page in my substack publication Room with a Door.

I’m a Canadian-born, Swiss-raised writer, self-published author, creator of hand-crafted gift items, mom of teens and beagle wrangler, and my life is rooted in words.

Shortly after the pandemic lockdowns finally lifted (and hopefully will never, ever return), I complained to my mother about the endless mess and ever-increasing clutter at my house. She offered me a few day’s sanctuary and I inadvertently packed a bag and left.

Here’s the main reason I left:

Mess and clutter offends me.

Mom pointed to my sister’s old room and declared it my space whenever I wanted it.

I adore having a room with a door of my own.

You cannot possibly understand how much I cherish this singular treasure. You see, I do not have a room of my own in the city/family house; the house is too small and I was the opposite of assertive when I agreed to purchase it thinking ‘we’ll be here for a few years and once the babies arrive, we’ll move someplace a little bit larger’.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

We still own the house, but one of the kids has moved out, and the other is in grade 11.

The point is, I have a space I can escape to now, a room with a door at my mom’s house.

It’s a private space where I can write — for the first time in 18+ years — completely undisturbed.

In the past two years, I wrote some of my best words in my room with a door.

Yet many of them remain unpublished.

Why?

Because I am a highly oversensitive, emotionally complex individual who wants to do right by everyone and not offend anyone and be all the things to everyone so that everyone is calm and happy and leaves me the fuck alone when I want to write my words.

It means I let myself — my needs — come last.

Do you know what happens when I come last?

I get resentful.

I get anxious.