Menna van Praag is the author of The Witches of Cambridge, which is out now!
I wrote my first novel on my lap on my mum’s sofa. I wrote the second on the kitchen table. I wrote the third in the garden one summer. I wrote the forth mainly in bed. It was only by the time I wrote my fifth novel that I actually graduated to my own writing desk. I still don’t have a room, since I live with my husband and son in a very small (but very beautiful) flat, but I’m so happy to have the desk that I don’t mind at all. In fact, I rather enjoy being in the living room, writing while people come and go. Being a writer is such an isolating thing – you spend so much of your time tucked away in your own stories instead of stepping out into the real world – that it feels good for me to be emerged in the hustle and bustle of people going to and fro. Of course, when I’ve reached a difficult plot problem or character moment, or when the words just won’t come, then I need silence, which is when I retreat to the bedroom…
Last week I moved my desk from facing a wall (I’d been following in the footsteps of many famous writers who said they could only write while facing a blank wall) to facing the garden. I’m so glad I did. I love gazing out into the garden and, far from finding it too much of a distraction (except when I want to be distracted) I find that the ever-changing shift of nature inspires me. I write magical realism novels and there is always something enchanting about a garden – one never knows what wonders might be hiding in the flowers or trees.
I’m fortunate in that I can write anywhere. If it’s really too noisy in the flat I’ll take myself off to a café – a cup of tea and slice of cake does tend to spark the imagination too – or the garden. But I always love coming back to my desk. It’s my creative home.
