Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan &
Deborah Biancotti is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99
Margo's writing space:
In the picture you can see my new standing desk arrangement,
made using an Ikea step stool. Just to be meta, on the laptop screen is a
picture of my rented Writing Room, which I'm in the process of moving out of in
favour of the new Writing Shed that's nearly built in my back yard. Right now I
split my writing location between my kitchen table and the spare room with the
standing desk.
My writing habits, when I'm drafting, are to write as
early as possible. Fall out of bed and start, before doing anything else and especially
before eating breakfast.
Then eat breakfast. Then get back on it. For Zeroes,
write (on the laptop) a chapter (max 2000 words) in a day, maybe two on a good
day; for solo work, write (longhand) ten pages (roughly 3300) in a day. Finish
with a note about what to tackle tomorrow.
Then drop the writing and get some oxygen into the
brain, with a walk or a swim. Speaking to another human is an excellent idea
too, at this stage.
And read someone else's words before I go to sleep at
night, to inspire me either with admiration or with irritation for the next
day's work.
Deb's writing space:
This desk is time-shared with my partner (hence the
certificate for fly angling on the wall!), so it looks kind of bare because it
has to be multi-purposed.
There's not a lot of natural light in my house—it's a
historic 1870s terrace built in the British style—so consequently I buy a lot
of bright things, like bright red ergonomic chairs. We just bought those
awesome lights on swivel arms. Today, you can see daylight through the
staircase on the left, which is a bonus. Reflected in the monitor, you may be
able to make out the wall behind the desk, with its shiny gold wallpaper and
framed print.
I'm not a morning person, so my typical day is
customised to suit. I start off usually by feeding cats and then completing
whatever business needs don't require my full attention. Like, answering email
and checking social media. Lately I've also moved my gym sessions into the
morning.
After whatever morning duties I have, I'll start in on
the most pressing writing tasks. I try to track what I'm working on daily, but
I haven't perfected the whole scheduling of work and rest yet.
Around lunchtime I do some exercise—usually I go to
the gym for some weight training and cardio. Then the afternoon is back to
writing. If I need the mental break, I might also try some meditation (I say
'try' because I'm terrible at meditation, but I've heard it's good for you, so
. . . )
I've noticed that my mental acuity picks up around
2pm. In fact, I can usually tell when it's 2pm because there's a sensation like
my brain is powering up. It's quite distinctive. I work until my boyfriend
comes home, around 7pm. I usually try to stop work in the evenings & pick
up something relaxing, like knitting—because that's how I roll! Evenings are
also my fiction-consumption time: reading and watching.
Most of my life, I've had to squeeze writing around
whatever else I've been doing. I worked full-time for twenty years, but in the
past couple of years I've managed to live on a part-time salary, which has
helped my productivity. The real problem, though, isn't how much time I have
for writing, but how much energy. Now that I get to be a full-time writer for a
while, I'm trying to develop different (and even more productive) habits. I'm a
bit of a work in progress that way.
Scott's writing space:
I have many different writing spaces. Have laptop will
travel and ergonomics be damned, that’s me. I’ve written at desks, sitting in
chairs, on the floor, on the bed, inside, outside, in Argentina, Australia,
Canada, Italy, France, Mexico, Thailand and the United States. I’ve written on
boats, on land and in the air.
However, my favorite writing space is my chair in
Sydney. It's upholstered with vintage coats from the 1940s and 50s, which gives
it a tweedy look and feel. It's kind of like someone stitched a bunch of
college professors together into one piece of furniture. And really, that's
what we all need in a writing chair, right?
Right???
I write between caffeine and alcohol. That is, I get
up early and have coffee and take a long walk, sometimes almost two hours. Then
I work pretty much until dinner time. Then I start cooking, which cools down
the brain. As does wine.
I'm pretty sure that the most important thing in any
writing schedule is the ritual itself. When your body and brain get used to a
certain pattern, they don't fight the work as much. Your butt hits the writing
chair, and it's time to write. So whatever your schedule is, the important
thing is to be consistent.
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