You should be able to drag and drop the icons on your desktop to any place on the screen. If you try to move the icons and they whip back to their original position, change the setting.
Go to your Desktop
Right click on any empty space
In the shortcut menu that opens,
Click Arrange Icon by ... from the menu Click on Auto Arrange to remove the checkmark
Now you can move icons to any place on your desktop.
The Align the Grid option will keep your icons grouped on a straight line ...
if you find this annoying, click Align to Grid to remove the checkmark.