Where do you write?

Posted by Sam Blake on 22 January 2012. No Comments so far.

Writing.ie are running a really interesting series on where writers write. As a writer I’m extremely nosey, so looking at where authors create their magic is particularly fascinating. What’s even more interesting than what’s on their desk, are the locations they chose, here is a sample to show you what I mean:

This is international best selling writer Darren Shan in Part One of the series:

“Being a penniless young writer on the dole, I wrote most of my “Saga of Darren Shan” in my bedroom in my parents’ house. I had a small desk at the foot of my bed, where I had done all of my homework a few years earlier when at secondary school. Every morning I’d get up, shuffle a few feet down the room, sit and begin writing! It was a very cramped room, with loads of shelves overflowing with books, comics and videos. (Remember videos?!?) I had a small CD/cassette player (remember cassettes?!?) which I’d bought for my 21st birthday, which was always on, as I always like to have music playing while I work.

These days I have my own house with a very nice, spacious office with a sweeping view of the river Shannon. I have a big CD jukebox in one corner – it can hold up to 200 CDs, but I usually load it with no more than 8 or 9 at a time. To be honest, while it’s much nicer having the extra space, lack of clutter and nice view, it doesn’t make much difference to my writing. When I start tapping on the keyboard, the world fades out around me and it doesn’t really matter if I’m squeezed into a cell or in the middle of an expansive gallery – the world of the story is all I really notice.”

Sheila O’Flanaghan says “My first books were written in a converted garage which had minimal heat and insulation. It concentrated the mind wonderfully but it was hard to type with cold fingers.

A few years ago I decided that the time had come for an upgrade and so we built up over the garage and it’s in this added room that I now write.

The most important thing to me was having lots of light and being able to look out over my garden. (It’s not that I have an amazingly gorgeous garden, my fingers aren’t all that green, but I like feeling as though I’m outside even when I’m not.) So my writing area has lots of windows. It also has lots of space for books, although I try to keep them out of my line of sight because otherwise I’d probably stop writing and start reading instead….”

In Part Two fiction writer and poet Nuala Ni Chonchuir reveals  “For her newly completed novel Nuala created a ‘lucky plate’ of charms. This silver dish is filled with beach-combed finds, along with a satin heart, a Holy Mary medal, an origami ladybird, several lucky pennies and a card that reads ‘Love your goal! Automatically you will make progress.’ Nuala also made a ‘lucky collage’ for her first novel You to help it on its way. ”

Fabulous! And for those of you who are nosey like me, this is her desk:

I was filming with highly acclaimed Irish writer Carlo Gebler yesterday who described Nuala as ‘extremely talented’. There is no better accolade. Find out more about her writing at her website here.

But back to crime writers – Lee Child was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on his writing space “… Mr. Child lives in a two-room apartment in the Flatiron district that’s architecturally stark, wrapped in white and bereft of rugs, curtains, side tables or accessories. The entire left-hand wall—stretching from the white Corian kitchen counter along the living space and to the windows that open to a small balcony—is a plane of glossy white laminate cabinetry. Inside the cabinets are some 3,000 books, as Mr. Child believes books make a room visually chaotic and that displaying them is pretentious. The books are shelved randomly; Mr. Child said his photographic memory allows him to know exactly where each one sits.

The only furniture in the living area are two black Walter Knoll leather sofas where Mr. Child is often horizontal, thinking up plot twists or watching MSNBC and baseball on his Bang & Olufsen flat-screen. The source for color: A large Tom Christopher painting of a New York street scene looking down Fifth Avenue. The red traffic light in the painting is echoed by a red ashtray on the small balcony outside, where the view up Fifth includes Madison Square Park, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Metropolitan Life clock tower….”

It’s a great article, well worth a read. And if you are a fan of Lee Child, read my interview with him here ‘Lee Child on Writing, Reacher and The Affair.’