Saturday 22 November 2014

Where I Write by Louise Marley


As I found out last month, I don’t need a room of my own in which to write. I can write anywhere. It doesn’t mean I have to like it though! I love having my own study – and it is definitely a study – ‘office’ sounds far too much like work. Writing can be very hard work but it’s also the best job in the world. Make stuff up for a living? What’s not to love?

So, welcome to my world! I’ve not written much here yet, as I’ve been too busy moving house. I don’t close the door, unless the writing is going badly. I’m incredibly nosy and I like to know what is going on elsewhere in the house. Having said that, I always listen to music while I work, to drown out background noise. I create playlists to help me get into the right (write?) frame of mind and I also have mood boards on Pinterest – but you can read more about my actual writing process here.

I write on a laptop. It enables me to work anywhere. I can touch-type as fast as I can talk – and believe me, I can talk very fast. If pushed, I can also write using paper and pen, although my handwriting is appalling – even I have trouble reading it back.

The box on the left of my desk contains recent issues of trade magazines – Writing Magazine, The Author, Romance Matters and The Bookseller. The red box is my ‘pending’ tray. The action figure perched on the edge of the pending tray is Reno, my good luck charm. Reno is a character from a video game called Final Fantasy but he’s also a character in one of my favourite books, Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart. I won him in one of her competitions.

I am a terrible hoarder and hate throwing anything away. I collect mugs, and when they get broken I reuse them to store my pens. The white one with the crest on it is from Hampshire Constabulary, where I used to work as a civilian admin officer – this is why my characters are often police officers.

Unfortunately I don’t have room in my study for all my books – they live in plastic crates elsewhere in the house. This is probably a good thing; I’m the kind of person who can’t be trusted to be left alone with a book. The only books on my study shelves are there for reference.

I also rely heavily on my Kindle Fire for work. I edit on it when I’m out and about, and I use it for catching up with emails, social networking and blogging. It also contains over 1,000 books. I know because I counted them – and yes, I have read most of them! So if I should suddenly go quiet, I’m sure you’ll be able to guess what I’m up to …


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6 comments:

  1. I'm glad you've got your new writing space Louise - it's looks great. Enjoy!

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    1. Thank you, Juliet! It was one of the first rooms to be sorted!

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  2. A very neat and tidy writing space! Is it always like that? Glad you've settled in to your new house now :)

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    1. Heh heh: no! In fact, I think I'm going to have to move again because it's so untidy ;-)

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  3. How do you edit on a Kindle Fire, Louise? Intrigued.

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    1. It's easy. I either email a word document to my Kindle or save it as a mobi file and transfer across manually. I then highlight the parts that need to be changed. On a Kindle Fire you have a choice of 4 colours. I use the blue highlight for punctuation errors, orange if something needs rewording, pink for delete and yellow for everything else. There is also the option to add notes, so I can add extra text. Of course, it's not 'editing' as such, because you can't physically make changes to the document. I suppose it's the equivalent of scribbling all over a hard copy. When I'm back in my study I can then make the changes on the original document. It saves carrying a laptop all over the place and means I can 'edit' anywhere. It's great to proof read on too, because any errors really jump out. I used to do this on my old Kindle too, although there weren't the options for the pretty colours! x

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