*Originally posted as a guest post on All Betts are Off, November 6, 2021
Have you ever wandered into your local library or coffee shop and noticed a person, or two, totally absorbed in whatever is on their laptop screen?
What’s so intriguing? Perhaps it’s a work project or yet another policy and procedure document that needs to be reviewed by morning. Maybe it’s a long-winded email from a long-lost friend.
Or perhaps, it’s the next New York Times Bestseller.
As a busy, homeschooling mom of four, I don’t get a lot of quiet time to write. I have a dedicated space in our home for my writing desk, laptop, and craft books. But even now, as I look around me, there’s a Humpty Dumpty wall game at my feet, a Narnia book next to it, Little People figurines directly behind me, and art work taped to my desk. The chatter and laughter of little ones provides my background music.
It’s beautiful chaos. Sometimes it’s inspires scenes, but mostly I just want to tidy up so my creative juices will flow without the distraction of…whatever is sitting next to me in the moment.
My debut novel, which released last November, was written in the midst of this chaos. And at my kitchen table where dirty dishes were waiting for my undivided attention.
So when my oldest littles were ready to attend church club on Tuesday evenings, I volunteered my husband to put the youngest two to bed while I ventured to the local library to write my story. I’d drop off our kids, grab a coffee (decaf of course), and plop myself in a study nook for a glorious hour and a half of uninterrupted writing time. It was there I wrote my entire third and fourth novels.
Now that we’ve relocated to a small town, I’ve been eager to explore the local branches. I’m happy that living in a small town doesn’t exclude us from having a library to feed our imaginations. Our town has one branch, but there are three other libraries within a twenty minute drive. This makes the bookworm and author in me, happy.
Who knows… maybe I’ll find my little corner table in the library once again and write the next Globe and Mail, or NY Times, best seller.
Do you have a favourite spot to write? What about a reading spot?