A Day in the Scriptorium

 

Good evening my friends. What a day it has been. I finished the first rewrite of the first draft, lol getting complicated I know. What is great when you reach the end of the first draft is the story has finally made itself known and the rawness is on paper. I never write a tidy first draft, in fact the story is full of grammatical errors, omissions and a missing word here and there.

I was going through some emails, and DMs when I came across a lovely message from a lady in Manchester. She asked about what a typical day was like for a fantasy writer, how do I plot, plan and begin writing.

Well, my friends, sit down and help yourself to a glass of wine and settle into your favourite chair and I’ll tell you what a typical, and not so typical day is like in the Scriptorium.

 

Coffee, Quiet, and a Blank Page

I always have a cup of coffee before I open the PC. But I tell you this, nothing beats that first cup of French roast before the day begins.

It’s two years since I had the Scriptorium redecorated. Bookshelves put up, desk moved to a position where I can look out of both windows.

The desk, it can look like something from an episode of ‘Hoarders’, but I have my notebook open on the outline or the character descriptions. If it’s a new WIP, then the blank page is either the epigraph or the title page.

For me the quiet of the room is while I am deciding on the playlist, which I usually have picked before I begin writing the book.

The Opening of the Manuscript

I always find the first page of writing a new book is the most exciting. The story is new and the characters are just introducing themselves.

My Tempus Militibus Series is ten books with the character arcs almost published. I finished all the books before I published the first book in the series. That was an important decision for me. A long series can change over the course of time, I felt that if I finished the first drafts of the series before the first book was published, continuity between each book would remain on track and I would be immersed completely in the world. There’s a particular satisfaction that comes from having a completed series done before the first book comes out.  

Conversations with Imaginary People

When I start writing, I write the description of the characters into a small notebook. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a sucker for accents, and when I write dialogue, I can hear the characters, how they sound and the way they look when they avoid an uncomfortable question or a flirtatious expression.

One advantage of being a writer is having a conversation with imaginary people as it doesn’t raise an eyebrow. Although it does raise a whisker of two very judgemental literary experts.

The Uninvited Editors

Mouse                                 Lady Cora

I love when the cats lounge either on the window, or the old chair while I am writing. Lady Cora has long been a stalwart of the Scriptorium and along with Mouse, the orange and white parkour champion of the Militiverse, they take it in turns to jump onto the desk and decide what edits need to be done. Mouse has discovered the number pad and has decided that ‘000000000000000039221.’ has significant meaning in the latest case the Militibus are investigating.  

The Closing of the Scriptorium

Some readers are curious about the writing process, how many words a day does a writer write, how many hours. It varies from writer to writer. I can only say what I do. Writing is my full-time job. I write up to twelve hours a day when I am working toward a deadline. I don’t write at weekends, I usually take my camera and I go out amongst the ruins of abbeys, castles, or some quiet reflection by the sea.

When I finish the chapter, or paragraph that I have been working on, and I know I am reaching a point where I’m not writing anything that adds to the story, then I close down the PC. I let the track finish playing on the record player and then, myself, Lady Cora, and Mouse, leave the Scriptorium to the Militibus, or what other characters have come in and taken to rest there. Tomorrow is a new day in the

Militiverse Scriptorium.

I hope that this little glimpse into my writing routine has been informative. Just a little note, my dear friends, inspiration is all around us, open your notebook, put down your thoughts, sketch them because you never know what stories or pictures will come from those private pages.

Until next time my friends, enjoy this magnificent weather.

Anna