This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Lucy Lawrie’s novel, Tiny Acts of Love, is out on 6 March and we’ll be reviewing it here soon. Today Lucy is telling us about her writing space, which is a little different to your usual antique desk and bookshelves…
Most of my novel, Tiny Acts of Love, was written while my younger daughter was napping in the back of the car. People sometimes ask anxiously if I stopped the car first. The answer is yes. No need to rush out and amend the Road Traffic Act to add the offence of ‘Driving of a motor vehicle while writing fiction’.
It was simply that I always had to drive Charlotte around to get her to go to sleep. I’d wait for her eyelids to droop… then close… then keep driving for another two minutes (that was crucial) and then pull up, wherever we were. She was never one of those transferable-while-sleeping babies (they do exist, apparently), so I’d be stuck in the car for as long as I wanted her to nap. That’s when I’d pull the laptop out and write. You can make a lot of progress in one hour a day when you’re completely focused, with no distractions. It was the equivalent of gluing myself to my seat.We’ve moved on a bit now. Charlotte no longer naps during the day, but she insists that I sit with her while she goes to sleep at night (I know, I know…). So that’s my glued-to-the-seat time now. It’s not ideal. Sometimes I have to type one-handed, because she’s holding my left arm in a full body, vice-like grip. Often, there’s music playing on her CD player. There’s a particularly challenging jungle song she insists on having on repeat at the moment (‘They go screech, screech, boogy woogy boogy…’). It can really take the edge off some of the more romantic scenes – they sometimes have to be adjusted later. Nevertheless, I often find myself sitting in the dark, two hours after she’s gone to sleep, blinking and wondering where the time’s gone, and what’s this new scene I seem to have written anyway?
That kind of ‘flow’ is what we’re aiming for, as writers. Unfortunately, ‘flow’ can be bad news when you’re a mum to two lively daughters. ‘Flow’ usually results in burnt sausages, forgotten homework, uncompleted Viking longboat sculptures (‘I told you it was for tomorrow, Mum’) and a tide of chaos rising around you. Once I went into the living room after ‘flow’ and discovered that Charlotte and her big sister had taken every single receptacle out of the kitchen cupboards – bowls, cups, eggcups, Tupperware – and filled them all with Cheerios, as a feast for their rather startled-looking Barbies.
Somehow, I managed to finish Tiny Acts of Love – and have now written most of a second novel – even though there have always been little girls clinging to my arm, snoring in their car seats, or orchestrating mischief not far away. There’s no magic to it, and not very much of a plan either. I don’t have a dedicated working room, or hours set aside in the day. My favourite time for writing is when everybody else is asleep and the house is dark and quiet. Then I write in bed, propped up against the pillows, with a cup of tea, a hot-water bottle and the laptop. Absolute bliss, and surprisingly productive. Just so long as I can stay awake…