Writing Places

Where do you do your best work?

I’ve been on hiatus from my writing because of travel and family business. When I look back at the last date I entered in my writing journal, the one I keep alongside whatever work of fiction is occupying me these days, I’m not surprised to see it reads May 12th. I’ve been on the other side of the world and the other side of history from my characters who live half the time on the northeast coast of England in the 1940s and the other half in the same place in the 1400s.

No wonder, I’m finding it hard to get them talking to me again. So how do I jumpstart the process?

When I give presentations about writing, students often ask me basic questions like whether I write on the computer or longhand, whether I dictate, whether I show it to other people when I’m working on a book and finally, where do I write? I recognize these questions because I used to ask them myself. Underneath, the questioner is looking for some secret key to unlock the creative process, an easy way to get the story moving, to coax the characters out of hiding.

Some writers I know can write wherever they are, be it at a writing retreat or on a trip to some foreign land. I used to be that way but no longer. My creative brain needs familiar places although not necessarily quiet ones.

At home, I am lucky enough to be able to separate the two sides of my writing self. The creative self occupies a small, cosy (6 X 10 ft) room with a desk, a packed bookshelf, a comfortable couch not much bigger than a chair, a view facing south across a city courtyard, a windowsill holding a few succulent plants that don’t demand much of my attention and walls covered with pictures or quotes that inspire me.

Charles Dickens at his desk

The business self takes up residence at a desk about ten inches from my bed. This is the person who deals with promotion, royalties, travel and finances. I try my best to keep these two sides of myself separated from one another, and in the best of all possible worlds, never the twain shall meet.'

That said, there are times when the home office just doesn’t work. I can never predict when that will happen. It might be that my eye catches a pile of laundry or I forgot to turn my phone off or I trick myself into thinking that that reducing the emails in my inbox should be my top priority. After too many days like that, I pack up my laptop and head out. Where do I go? a tulip garden near home in good weather,

public libraries, museum libraries, or a private library where I can often book my own study room. But to be honest, my favorite places are coffee shops. People are often surprised to hear that, but noise, music, other people don’t bother me. I don’t have to do their laundry, make their coffee or answer their phones, and I can always put on headphones and listen to medieval music for inspiration. Besides, creative people need fueling, be it food or coffee that they don’t have to prepare themselves. I can tempt myself to stay a little longer at the keyboard with just one more cappucino.

I’m writing this in my favorite coffee shop and clearly, the magic is working. I’ve finished this newsletter and written two pages of the novel.

I’d love to hear from other creatives. Where do you do your best work? What tricks do you use to get yourself going again?