Taking inspiration from The Guardian's 'Writers' Rooms', Sky Arts' 'The Write Place' and Book Chick City's excellent 'Where Stories Are Made'; My Writing Room is a fabulous fortnightly event, in which some of our favourite authors show us where the writerly magic happens, and tell us a little about their writing life.
This week we are super pleased to welcome Clodagh Murphy - author of The Disengagement Ring and the upcoming Girl in a Spin! Enjoy...
My Writing Room by Clodagh Murphy
Living in a one-bedroom apartment, I don't have the luxury of a writing room, but this is my writing corner. It's by the window in the living/dining room. The room faces south-west, so it's a lovely bright place to sit and on a nice day the sun streams in. Having a designated space for writing can help with getting into work mode, and most of my writing is done at this desk. But sometimes I move around with the laptop and if I'm blocked, I find sometimes a change of location can help to get things flowing again.
I work four days a week, so apart from my days off, most of my writing is done in the evenings. I'm better at staying up late than getting up early, and I drink a lot of coffee when I'm working flat out on a book so that I can work late into the night. I write directly onto the laptop. This one was bought in a hurry when my previous one went into meltdown at a crucial stage in the editing of my first book. They pick their moments!
I like to have things around my desk that inspire and motivate me. I bought the painting on the right over the desk with some of my advance when I got my book deal. It reminds me of what I've achieved so far. On the other wall are two silk paintings I bought in Vietnam. I love travelling, so having mementos of my travels or pictures of places I want to go is very motivating to me. A friend gave me the calendar, which is all beautiful photographs of islands, a different one for every day.
I'm not a very organised person and my desk is pretty messy. Every so often I try to impose order on it, but it doesn’t usually last long, and it gets worse the further I get into a book. Among the clutter on it at the moment is a lucky elephant that I bought for my new novel. I probably should have tidied up before taking the photo, but I decided to 'keep it real'. (That's right, I couldn't be bothered to tidy up.)
