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