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Writing Tips Oasis

Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

My Writing Room by Katie Schickel

By Novelicious

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Katie Schickel's Writing Room
In the mornings, I drop my kids off at school, then trudge up to the third floor of my circa-1803 home. It’s a bit creaky up there, and I know, for sure, we have a ghost. (Fortunately, he leaves me alone during the day.) I work through the mornings in my office, but I tend to get brain freeze after a few hours, so I usually print a chapter, then head out in my mobile office, which is a very filthy Ford Escape.

Lately, I’ve been going to the beach/wildlife refuge near my house in the afternoons and parking next to the bird-watchers at the marsh. They can tell I’m not one of them, and we keep a respectable distance from each other, but I like it out there. For some reason, the change in scenery helps me focus.

Sometimes I park at the train station and edit my hard copy while the train rumbles by on the other side of the chain-link fence. Sometimes I go to the public library which was built in 1771 and entertained people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I try to envision those guys sitting at the next carrel over as I work.

For a while, I rented an office in an old mill building. It was being converted into an artists’ community with showers, classrooms, a recording studio, even a wood shop. Unfortunately, the landlord ran into some problems and never managed to get heating or water into the building, or for that matter, artists, so I was mostly alone in a 25,000-square foot building with broken windows and no heat. There was a guy in the basement who made really creepy silicone masks and body parts. I left there after a few months.

What I’ve learned is that I can work anywhere, as long as I have a laptop and deadline.

Housewitch by Katie Schickel is out now.

Filed Under: Authors, My Writing Room

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