More Places We Write... by Kelly McKain

 More Places We Write... 

Well, as you can imagine, I was very thrilled when I sat down to write my blog for this month, to see that Claire Fayers had just written something about writing in different places. Which I was about to do. And still am - except now it's a follow on from Claire's piece.

It's been a very interesting couple of years for me, writing-places wise. I went through a divorce in 2020 and that, coupled with COVID making finding places to stay a challenge, gave me a very different landscape writing-wise.

First I found myself about to rent a small place in a nearby town to live and write for three days a week, and then the offices of the rental company (part of a country estate) suddenly closed due to COVID and I had nowhere to go. Some wonderful friends came to the rescue and we moved my caravan to beside their cottage. Owing to having to look after horses, I was permitted to travel there during lockdown (not in contact with anyone, I might add!) and work/live in the beautiful Willow for a few months on and off. I had the best view in Surrey, especially in the evenings!

In May, at Beltane, I danced under the big oak tree in the field adjoining the land I was staying on - boots kicked off, sunshine on my face, then went back to work via Whatsapp on a screenplay with the very talented SASsie Steve Gladwin.

In the late summer it was hot until almost midnight. I worked with the door and windows all open and there was plenty of inspiration for a fairy book in the fields nearby - where I walked barefoot for three days in a row over Lammas.

Winter 2020 brought a stay at a magical hut near Glastonbury and I so enjoyed walking with a rewrite of my YA fantasy novel, Green Witch (copy-edit of which just returned to my editor ten minutes ago - woo hoo!)

Spring saw an exciting move with my children into our own new home in West Sussex, and the discovery that I had bought an incredible sun-trap, which was sit-out-in-able right from March. From there, I got to work on a new mindfulness series out next year, The Feeling Good Club, and started my Intuitive Guidance and Energy Healing business.

 

Then to Bristol last autumn, where my lovely partner Tim lives - and the fantastic discovery of two things: First, the joy of Coffee #1 as a work space, where this February half term I worked up the synopses for a follow-up series to The Fairy House, which had been commissioned by my Japanese publisher. And second, the hilarity and companionship of working across a studio room with someone else, who occasionally erupts into fits of pique about missing or un-useable bits of things that he needs for doing stuff (as you can tell, the technical terms pass me by, but he's a video editor!)

Now, I'm sitting in my ex-husband's partner's study writing this, as I'm house-sitting while they're in Africa. It has grown dark outside while I've been writing, and, while it's not Claire's stunning view, the treetops, some branches still bare, look beautiful against the inky sky. Spring is coming, I'm very, very fortunate now to have my own lovely home to work in, but I've got the taste for writing here, there and everywhere again, and I can't wait to see what writing adventures and new views this year will bring!

by Kelly McKain

www.kellymckain.co.uk

https://kellymckain.co.uk/authors-hour-of-power/ Creative and strategic consultations for aspiring and working authors.

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A place to write - Hilary Hawkes

Something I’ve had cause to ponder recently is how important, for authors, is having a designated place to write?

Sir Walter Scott wrote Marmion, his best seller epic poem, whilst on horseback. D H Lawrence often wrote beneath the shade of a tree. Virginia Wolf and husband started a publishing business in their basement – and, apparently, she wrote down there in a storage room sitting in an armchair.

Agatha Christie plotted some of her novels whilst in the bath, eating apples.

L H Anderson, the US YA author, wrote in closets, on bleaches, in the car and at airports. Then she married a carpenter and he built her a  hand built cottage 

  “All writers should marry carpenters” she declared.

Too late. I never heard that piece of advice. It took me a while, probably decades, before I had a proper space for writing. I never learnt to ride so horseback was out and lingering to plot in the bath would have annoyed the rest of the family I’m sure. So for me places to write progressed from kitchen worktops, dining room tables, to  a desk squeezed into what the estate agent called the Dressing Room (actually a kind of cupboard with a window off of a bedroom). 

Then when my eldest son moved out into a place of his own I excitedly transformed his old small downstairs bedroom into my very own office and ‘writing room’.  This does sometimes have to transform back into a bedroom, but otherwise it’s pretty undisturbed, all mine and perfect.  

During the summer months, or even a warm spring and autumn, I carry everything I need out into our small conservatory so I can work and feel part of the outdoors at the same time.  Due to it being on the shady side of the house it never gets too hot and the light is wonderful.

I’m sure having your own undisturbed space makes a difference. 

But I wonder how much of a difference and whether other things matter more – like noise levels, distractions, mess or tidiness.  Are windows with views inspiring or just distracting? If I really had to get something written perhaps I could just write it anywhere – as long as I could plug in the laptop and there was wi fi too.

What about you? Where do you write and how important is having a designated space or room? And have you ever written in some unusual places?

Unusual places to write

Hilary Hawkes, writer and children's author. Website