I have led an itinerant existence over the past 12 months, so as the old adage goes, ‘wherever I lay my laptop, that’s my home.’ I have been living and working in London, flitting between TV sets in my work as a TV producer, then flying back to see my husband in Jersey at weekends.
Luckily life has settled down a bit recently, but I have learnt to write on the go and not be too precious about where I write in terms of time, place, or strength of wifi connection.
My perfect spot to write when in London would be Starbucks. I know it’s a cliché, but they are beautifully anonymous places and no one begrudges you nursing a cup of coffee and a marmite toastie for three hours. In Jersey the coffee shops are less anonymous so I tend to write from my kitchen counter.
I have various odds and ends around which make me feel at home – there’s the blue plaque my sister gave me to celebrate finishing my debut novel, a fruit bowl to try and tempt me into healthiness and the scan of my yet-to-be-born-baby which reminds me how little time I have left to write before more pressing demands are made on my time!
Writing at home brings its own set of problems though, mainly an internal monologue that goes something like this:
‘Okay, write a page…. but first a cup of tea. *Makes tea*. Now I can write. Hey, that decoupage cow I made looks lonely – maybe I should make him a friend sometime? Well, there’s no time like the present! *Makes decoupage cow… takes three hours*. Right, what was I doing? Oh yes, writing, but hang on it’s lunchtime! I can’t possibly write on an empty stomach….’
And so it continues. Maybe this says more about my propensity for procrastination than anything about the writing environment itself, or perhaps that’s why I like writing in coffee shops, because it stops me getting distracted by entirely pointless arts and crafts projects.
How to Get Ahead in Television by Sophie Cousens is out now.