Hello, SEers! You’re with Mae today with a post on fiefdoms. Probably not what you think, but it does come down to personal real estate.

Writers need a special place to create. It doesn’t matter where as long as we can put our stamp on it.

When I was a kid that place was my bedroom, where I spent hours scribbling in spiral bound notebooks. When I got my first typewriter at age fifteen (a manual), I took over my parents’ dining room table. Each day, we would move my papers and notes along with the typewriter to the floor when dinner rolled around. When the table was cleared, my parents gladly gave me my space back. To this day, I love how they encouraged me.

When my husband and I married, the dining room table pattern continued through each of the apartments we leased. When we bought our first…