This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
I started working at home when I was pregnant with my first child, thirteen years ago, fitting freelance journalism into early mornings and nap times.
I've written non-fiction at the dining room table and on the sofa, but my favourite place to write fiction is in bed, propped up with lots of pillows and the laptop slowly cooking my thighs.
However, a couple of years ago, my back and wrists were a bit… Knackered. I'd shifted to writing mainly fiction and typing in bed was apparently not as comfortable as I'd thought. It became clear that I needed a proper desk. And somewhere to put it.
Like most writers, I'd been dreaming of having a writing room of my own for a long time. I did a lot of research and dragged my family on thrilling trips to look at garden studios and cabins. I'm the kind of person who does research before buying a pair of trainers, so this stage took quite a while.
I (finally) chose Booths Garden Studios and can't recommend them highly enough. They put the office up in one day and it's amazing. It's cosy (even during the Scottish winter) and as the front is mainly glass, it's really light.
My desk was from IKEA many years ago. It’s a good size and has a drawers to hide most of my clutter. The laser printer is basic, but great for printing out manuscripts, and the red desk lamp was a bargain buy from Homebase.
I have encouraging notes around my computer screen, which I change every so often. At the moment, there’s ‘Write Crap’ (to remind me to just get some words done, however bad they may be) and another which says ‘it always seems impossible until it’s done’. Because it does.
To the left of the monitor is the collage for my current book-in-progress (the follow up to The Language of Spells), a Sunnydale High School mug, and a stack of paperwork and research notes. There’s also an ‘Inspiration and Exhilaration’ Eve Taylor candle which was a gift from a friend. I light it when I’m feeling particularly feeble.
The rest of the office is quite bare, still. I’m saving up to buy a sofa bed so that we can use it as a spare room when we have guests. There’s a small bookshelf with my reference books, writing books and some craft stuff, and a pinboard which usually has pretty and inspirational pictures (such as one of Nora Ephron), but is currently covered with post-it notes to help me see the overall structure of the WIP.
I love my office with an unseemly passion and am so grateful to have it, but I must confess that I still write in bed, too… Oops.
Sarah's book The Language of Spells is out now!