For a while I had a table set up in my bedroom, with a typewriter set up on it. The table was flimsy; the typewriter was large and noisy, and the whole setup shook as I typed. But… it was a space away from the rest of the world.

Then I simply tried getting up early and writing (with pen and paper) at the kitchen table. This worked well, since (a) I’m a morning person and (b) I preferred to write my first drafts by hand at that stage, and do the first edit when I was typing up the day’s work.

Then we added an extension to the house, and I had my first office. It was tiny – barely room for a desk and a chair. It was pretty much the size of a walk-in closet – but it was mine: equipped with files and a computer.

Next came a bigger house and a parent retreat. Well, actually, it never WAS used as a parent retreat: it was a writing space right from the start. Luxury: a whole room all to myself!

That lasted a few years, until our business grew bigger and both my husband and myself were working from home. His office was in one room of the house (a spare bedroom, after one of the kids left home) and my office was still the aforementioned parent retreat. Meanwhile, the garage had never housed the car – it was a shambles. So we had a chat, restored the spare bedroom to being a spare bedroom… and converted the garage into a huge office, equipped with three computers and four workstations. That’s where I’m writing now.

Most writers have a problem at some stage finding writing space of their own. I heard someone talking about it just the other day, and that’s what prompted my most recent article on Suite101: Find a Nook to Write a Book. Now I’m looking forward to my NEXT ‘writing nook’ – which will be a workstation built into our new caravan! Yep, a writer’s nook on the road… now that should be different!

Cheers

Marg

All in all… it’s hard to get some of the writing done. I think most writers feel more natural WRITING rather than dictating, but I know that some writers have seen their productivity soar when they started to use a speech recognition program. Dragon Naturally Speaking seems to be the one that is streets ahead of anyone else (I tried the version that came with Vista and even after some ‘training’ of the software, the results were laughable.)

However, Dragon Naturally Speaking is supposed to work with a high degree of accuracy straight out of the box, and even better if you put in the recommended 20 minutes to train the software for your voice patterns. I have seen some disagreement over what kind of microphone is best to use.

In this case, I’d love some feedback from anyone who HAS used it (even better, is using it on a regular basis). Care to share the benefits and pitfalls, if any?

Marg

How do you find out what you wan to know? Generally, you will ask someone or you’ll look it up. Most commonly, you’ll use your computer – you’ll either send an email, or you’ll fre up your web browser to see if you can find the answer online.

Sometimes the answer is straightforward, and you’re not likely to forget it. However, most often, you’ll want to file the information so you can refer to it again…and that’s where many writers fall down. They will print out the information and put it somewhere out of the way – then forget where they put it. Or they’ll copy and paste it into a word processing document – and forget where they filed it.

Notice that the key word here is ‘forget’. Most of us don’t throw away or delete the information; we just can’t remember where we put it!

That’s why it’s a good idea to spend an afternoon organising your writer’s files. Start by taking a good look at what you’re doing already. Is it efficient, or a mish-mash of files (or even just stacks of paper!)

An amazing number of people are either chronically under-organised (for example, they file everything in the general ‘documents’ folder on their computer and have to search through hundreds of files every time they want anything) or they’re over-organised (they create a new folder for their file every time they want to file something, and end up having six different folders that essentially store the same thing, so they STILL never know where anything is!)

Sit down with a notepad and pen and create a folder list for your computer, and another one for your hard copy files. Feel free to cross out, move things around, rename folders etc until you are happy with the filing system you’ve  created. Then STICK TO IT. Add a few more folders if necessary, but not too many. It should be simple and logical.

Then buy yourself a notebook and use it to jot down the LOCATION of all those files. Keep it on a nearby shelf or in a handy drawer.

• Write down the email folders that you use to store information
• Write down the location of writing technique files (in your filing cabinet? In ring binders? On the computer?)
• Write down the location of your ‘CONTACTS’ file (other writers, editors, agents, people who are good contacts for technical background in your novels, etc)

Use this to remind yourself of where you have stored existing files, and where you can store new information.

Every so often go through it and get rid of anything you no longer want or need.