This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
I have an office and I do use the office whenever I need to be really productive (i.e. my deadline is looming), but I write wherever is quiet in my house. I recently moved into my new house in the country and the peace here is invaluable. Every morning I’m on the hunt to find my laptop because I’ve forgotten which room I left it in the previous day.
In the mornings I usually spend my time answering social media comments and emails from readers. The really creative time for me is in the afternoon and evening. I often spend a few hours in the afternoon writing a few thousand words, but I’d say I’m in my element at night.
During the afternoon I mostly stick to my office because I’m guaranteed the quiet I need to write. Unless of course I’m at the summary stage of a manuscript and then I can be found on a big armchair in my bedroom with my music blasting out of the stereo as I write character and chapter summaries.My evening writing has no fixed place. Nighttime here is pitch black and utterly silent. The house is cozy and settled in for the night and I have no interruptions – absolute quiet to immerse myself inside my manuscript. I can be found in the den where my comfiest sofa is, or curled up on the sofa in my sitting room next to the fire.
I think it’s physically impossible for me to end the day midway through a chapter. I have to get to the end of the chapter – I have to feel the closure of that moment in the story for my characters before I can go to bed. By that point my eyes are bleary, my butt is numb and my fingers are cramping but I feel satisfied. Even if it is two in the morning.
It’s great to have a space where you can write and I love my office because it gives me structure on the days that I need it. But I think it’s important for writers to have the freedom to write wherever feeds their creativity. Writers should write where they want to write and never feel guilty for not using the designated office space.
My must haves for writing are my notebooks, my laptop/pc, music, coffee, diet pepsi, and a beautiful setting. For me that’s rolling green hills and trees in the every day.
I do like a nice lochview too whenever I get the chance to enjoy one.
Echoes of Scotland Street by Samantha Young is out today.