This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Mary Grehan's debut novel, Love is the Easy Bit, has just been released. You can read our review here. Over to Mary!
I write in my attic which is converted into a bedroom and used to be my artist’s studio when I was painting. (I stopped painting when I started writing seriously back in 2008.) It is also the guest bedroom, so before anyone comes to stay, I have to be careful to hide away latest print outs of work in progress.
There are lots of good things about my writing room. It’s quiet, large, warm and bright thanks to two Velux roof windows. The big drawback is that it is a room without a view, unless you count the grey Irish skies which are occasionally blue. It’s a shame because outside my house are beautiful views of a hill inhabited by wild goats and of a slow, grand estuary that divides County Waterford from County Wexford on which boats sail into Waterford city.
Sometimes I fantasise about getting a writing room with a view. I have noted a number of possible rooms with possible views on my walks but my fantasy has settled on a room in an office block that overlooks the park in Waterford city. This room would be my very own version of living next to New York’s Central Park. In my fantasy, I am allowed to bring my yet-to-be-acquired dog into my writing room and the same mutt drags me away from my computer from time to time into the park for some real life interaction. There I meet friends for afternoon cappuccinos (but not for too long as I have a book to write you know!). After my fantastical day’s writing, which is, of course, wonderfully productive, I unwind by popping across the road to the pool for a swim.
However, all such fantasies and dissatisfaction about my writing room evaporate when my writing is going well, because that’s the time that I am focussed on the view inside my head.