Writing 101
Where I Write Part Five with Catherine Ryan Howard
Catherine Ryan Howard, one of Ireland's most successful self-publishers told writing.ie,
"For many years, where I wrote was extremely important to me—more so than having an idea of what to write about, which soon turned out to be a rather crucial mistake. I tried sitting in bed with my laptop balanced between my stomach and my drawn-up knees (because I’d heard that Marian Keyes wrote in bed and if it was good enough for her...), a variety of desk styles from the Argos catalogue (trying each one out in a variety of locations) and even sitting at the kitchen table in a little holiday cottage by the sea I’d rented in the off-season just to write in (because I’ve read an interview in which Alex Barclay said she did just that, and any excuse...) But when I self-published and then, began to be a writer full-time—meaning that my job became a mix of writing, selling my writing and writing about selling my writing—I did it in my bedroom, right at the end of my bed.
I didn’t have a choice in the matter—neither the writing in my bedroom or doing it right at the end of my bed. Becoming a starving artist was great in many ways, but the way in which it was not was that I was advancing at great speed towards thirty and still living with my parents. They didn’t much like this either, as so, as a form of punishment, I suspect, I was sent back to the smallest room in the house, the “box room” which had been my first bedroom growing up. (Being the eldest I regularly announced that I was moving rooms, without advance notice, and everyone else just has to shuffle around, like musical chairs without the chairs or the music, and with a lot of packing and Blutac marks on the walls.) Boasting approximately the same floor space as the inside of a Mini Cooper, the only spot for a desk was right at the end of my bed. That left just enough room for a chair in between, and there you had it: my home office. It was a squeeze, but on the positive side I could go to work in my PJs and claim to have the shortest possible commute. (About three steps, give or take.)
Read more: Where I Write Part Five with Catherine Ryan Howard
Where I Write Part Four
As writers we know that you are a curious lot - not nosey, of course - curious. And what is more interesting than finding out exactly where some of Ireland's most successful writers actually write? Do you need a special place? Do you need a special chair? In Where I Write Part Four, Yvonne Cassidy kicks us off...
When I was younger, I talked about writing, a lot, spent more time talking about writing than I spent doing any. The problem, as I saw it, was that apart from not having enough time, I didn’t have a place to write. I needed a room, with a desk and a swivel chair. Oh, and a laptop. You couldn’t be a writer without a laptop.
The laptop came first, then a small desk, wedged in the corner of my apartment. A couple of years later I moved, and finally, I got a whole room to write. I celebrated by buying a bright orange swivel chair from Ikea.
I spent a lot of time in that room. I covered the walls with brown paper so I could stick up cut outs from magazines and post it notes with lines of dialogue and ideas for scenes. I stacked the shelves with writing books, articles, photocopies from classes I went to. I did a lot of planning there, figuring out what my characters were like and why they said the things they said. The irony, though, is that when I look back at my first two novels, I realise that I didn’t do too much actual writing there. Most of getting the words down was done somewhere else - in coffee shops, libraries, even in the car. I wrote the last chapter of my first novel on the train to Belfast.
For me, libraries are my favourite places to write. It’s like going to work – when I am there, I am writing, nothing else. Being surrounded by shelves of books seems to elevate my own writing somehow, giving my words something to live up to. I love to write in the National Library on Kildare Street. The round reading room is perfect - green lamps casting a silent glow on wooden desks, a dome of glass overhead. After a while, the guards greet you by name. One of them bought a copy of my first novel for his wife.
Where I Write Part Three
As you are all writers, we at writing.ie know, deep down, you all suffer from the most insatiable and overwhelming curiosity, so in the next of our series of fly-on-the-wall articles we reveal the secrets of three more Irish writers, getting a peek inside their writing rooms. Showing that their writing spaces are as individual as their writing, Alan Early, Rahel Fehily and Sarah Maria Griffin tell us where they write...
Where I Write Part Two
Part two of ‘Where I Write’ explores more writers’ cramped and creative rooms in which they craft their work. This week we get a glimpse inside Declan Burke’s ‘Cave’, Sinead Moriarty’s inspirational walls while Nuala Ni Chonchuir embraces the pretty clutter of her writing space.
Irish Crime Writer, DECLAN BURKE, refers to his writing space as ‘The Cave’, a room well lit in spite of its nickname due to the fact that, if nothing else, Declan needs great light in order to write. This bright ‘Cave’ is lined on three walls by bookshelves bursting at the seams. Declan’s ‘Writing Room’ is overflowing with books, however as he continues to describe his ‘Cave’ it is clear that it is a room of order and inspiration. As Declan himself explains “apart from everything else, floor-to-ceiling books make for wonderful insulation, and the most interesting wallpaper you could ever have,” but the books spilling out of the abundance of shelves are each an important addition to Declan’s creativity.
The top two shelves over the desk are taken up by Irish crime novels, which have now begun to spill down onto the third shelf, and he predicts that “at the rate Irish crime writers are churning them out, I’m gonna need a bigger boat.” Another three shelves accommodate his work related books, and one shelf is home to a framed newspaper clipping paraphrasing Samuel Beckett: ‘Try again, fail again, fail better,’ and his non-work reading, a category he refers to as a “mixed bag”. The last lot of shelves, to the left of his desk, proudly hold his own work.
Where I Write
With Roald Dahl's writing shed recently in the news, we posed the question: “Where do you like to write?” We asked some of Ireland's top authors to describe how they create an atmosphere conducive to successful writing. From minimalist offices with nothing but research notes to messy family rooms over-looking the beauty of the Irish landscape every author is different. But it is this variety that fascinates...
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