This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Today we have a look into the writing room(s!) of Liz Fenwick, whose debut novel The Cornish House just got an amazing review on Novelicious last week!
My Writing Room by Liz Fenwick
With my crazy life-style – living in three places- Dubai, London and Cornwall, I have writing spaces not just one and I really should include writing on a plane. In fact, I do some of my best work stuck in an economy seat with no internet distractions and the only temptation being films I have already seen! I suppose this means where I write has little to do with the process which is a good thing. When I’m in first draft mode, I can write anywhere as long as I have my lap top. First drafts for me are fast and furious – to get the story out of my head and on to the page. The real work comes in the editing stages and this is where being at a desk or on a plane seat helps to focus my wandering mind. Maybe it’s the act of sitting in a more formal space even if it’s filled with clutter. My mind is chaotic and my desk usually is too although the pictures don’t show this. The Cornish one, my kitchen, was taken while it was being repainted and looks pristine – not normal. The Dubai shot is when the kids were around for the holidays and I was doing admin and not writing or editing. Even the picture on the plane is not normal as I had two empty seats beside me…
As I mentioned, I work on the lap top almost exclusively except for tricky scenes or the ones where maybe a bit more ‘poetry’ is required. I find that pen in hand triggers a different skill and different style of writing that can help me work through problem scenes. It could be because it’s a slower process which gives my mind a chance to catch up. I also need note books for random thoughts that crop up during the writing and editing process. I often find that solutions to problems or just plain problems appear while I’m working on something completely different so it’s vital that a notebook is at hand to capture these insights, which I can then go through later. I tried doing this on note cards so that I could put them in order, but I’m so disorganized that I lost them. Now I know it has to be a notebook. It may not be in the ‘right’ order but to date I haven’t lost a notebook – have misplaced them though. Maybe someday I’ll be truly organized!
MORE ABOUT THE CORNISH HOUSE BY LIZ FENWICK