This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
There’s rarely just me in the house. Wouldn’t have it any other way. The main desk is in the living room, a beautiful and serious thing that we inherited, but I wander around the house and find the quietest table/bed/sofa for that day. It varies, and I like that because I don’t want to get too attached to one space and then feel I can’t write if it isn’t perfect. Some of the Sea House was written in an airport, some in Starbucks, some in a room in Beijing.
Secrets of the Sea House was based on a specific location, Harris in the Hebrides, so I spent as much time there as possible and the island became my writing room. We stayed in cottages around this estuary, one on the Luskentyre side and three around the Seilebost side, and all with incredible views and light. I always lugged a box of research books from place to place.
The book started in a cottage in Drinishader, which is now an art gallery. You could see porpoises and seals in the bay. It was natural to imagine one of the seal people turning up on the shore. I was amazed to find there was something very real behind these selkie stories from a local fisherman.
Initial writing is loose and involves lots of walking about. Editing and re-editing is more analytical and needs a desk and quiet so that you can hear the flow of what’s been written.
Sometimes I have to use a table to spread out note cards, or to sit and fill pages of foolscap on research, character and plot. But the main book writing is done on the laptop, and in a way that’s my writing room.
Elisabeth's latest novel, Secrets of the Sea House, has just been released.