|
Where do you write?
Sitting at my ironing board staring at a blank wall made me think, but I'll get back to that later. It made me wonder what it is that gets me writing? I don't know about you but it's not so much about where I write but what I'm looking at – apart from my laptop screen – what I can see beyond my window if I'm lucky enough to have one. What I like best is lots of open sky, or woods, or something to do with nature. Now, that's relaxing. Zzzzzz…. Ah, perhaps not such a good idea.
Because my life is split between two houses, kind of summer and winter, I'm lucky enough to have different places to write. Lucky, that is, when I don't forget the laptop on the 600 km journey between the two.
A new view can generate inspiration. In our house up in the Alps, where everything is in miniature, the view from my office, reached by ducking beneath low beams - ouch - is through a tiny window at knee level, through which all I can see is one square metre of wall. Nice stone, though. But hardly inspiring. And yet this is where I wrote half my Nano novel.
The other half was written down south, in my hilltop chalet amongst the pine trees behind the house. Paradise - well, nearly. It's got the lot. Windows with tree views and red squirrels passing by on the way to our almond trees. It even has a loo. A lock on the door might mean privacy, but I never use it as it's no deterrent from the knock on the door, and the 'have you bought anything for dinner?' question anyway.
So where is the perfect place to write? Is there one? And why? I don't think there is, myself. As writers, we're always looking for excuses, well I am. It's probably more about a place to be when it's not going so well. When the words won't come, it's always comforting to have an alternative view to an empty computer screen.
Having said all that, my most favourite place to write, early in the morning, is in bed. Unfortunately (wrong word perhaps) my husband is usually there which makes that impossible. The other problem is laptops and beds don't go together, hence it's scribbled in a notebook, extra work.
So, back to the ironing board, where I'm sitting now. We've just moved out of our main house into a small annexe. My husband's words ring in my ears, 'If you wrote a bestseller we wouldn't have to do summer rents!' My office is a mezzanine without a stitch of furniture except an ironing board for my laptop, a chair to sit it, and aforesaid blank wall. Inspiring? Well, I'm writing this, that's a start.
What do you think? Where do you write? And does it make any difference?
|
