Vanessa Greene is the author of The Vintage Teacup Club which is out on the 11th of October. Check out our review here.
Over to Vanessa to tell us about her writing room…
My Writing Room by Vanessa Greene
This is the desk I wrote The
Vintage Teacup Club at. I’ve moved home since, and now write in a shared
office, but this is still the place I think of as ‘my writing room’ — it was
in the sunny garden flat of an Edwardian house in south-east London.
On top of my printer are two vintage teacups that inspired
me as I wrote – one’s a beautiful 1950s teacup made into a candle that my
sister gave me, and has a handwritten tag with its history, the other a charity
shop find.
The natural light from the window really helped me wake up
on cold mornings! I also loved the view of the garden, which is home to a family
of foxes. There was a white-tailed young cub last year, who was feisty in that
urban-fox way. Sometimes he would come right up to the window and watch me as I
wrote.
There would often be music drifting down from in the flat
upstairs, but the room was always peaceful – although it rarely felt that way
with three lively female characters and their families in there with me! It was
surprising how real the women I wrote about in Teacups were to me by the end –
at the risk of sounding nuts, I still sometimes have the urge to email one and
catch up.
When it was time for a break, I’d go to the park, or walk
round some local charity shops. I love finding unusual objects and thinking
about who owned them in the past. With The
Vintage Teacup Club, my hobby became research – and (at least I told myself
this) afternoon teas with friends counted too!
I keep a diary on my desk and a chart that helps me stay on
top of my word count, plus an inbox full of notes and admin I too often ignore,
but there’s also a couple of Mad Men DVDs on my desk here – when I was working
from home my personal and work life crossed over a bit.
I prefer to edit on paper, so I print out drafts of chapters
as I go and get the red pen out – I can see better what’s working and what
isn’t. When revising like this I usually sit on the sofa with a cuppa and read
as I would if I was reading someone else’s book – then if I find any slow bits
or continuity errors I’ll mark them up.
While I was packing to leave this flat, I found hidden in a
cabinet the secret diary of a tenant from years before. As I’m a bit nosy, the
temptation to read it was pretty enormous! It was interesting to hear how another
girl, in her mid-twenties, had lived in my ‘writing room’, but unable to settle
into London life, decided to go back to her village.
For me, this room was the start of my life as a writer, and
a really positive new beginning.