‘Where Stories Are Made’ is a new feature here at Book Chick City. It’s where the author takes us on a tour of their writing place, be it an office, coffee shop or park and tells us about their writing day and rituals.
My guest today is author, Jeri Smith-Ready…
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Thanks so much to Carolyn at Book Chick City for having me take part in this fascinating feature! I’ve really enjoyed reading the other authors’ entries and seeing their pictures.
Frankly, in the past I’ve hesitated to show photos of my rooms, because—well, they’re not that impressive. I’m not a very visual person. I spend most of my waking hours deep inside my head, rather than looking at the world around me. They could build an entire season of What Not to Wear around my wardrobe. And while I’m not exactly poor, I prefer to spend any extra money on travel or books or music (or veterinary bills), rather than new furniture.
But then I thought, hey, maybe my very lack of décor (and decorum?) could, in itself, be interesting. So let’s peel back the layers of mystique surrounding Where Stories are Made, shall we?
When we moved to our new house seven years ago, I was excited to finally have my own office. I could decorate it any way I wanted! It would be a haven for writing! Here I would pen Great Works!
I bought a brand-new desk and matching credenza, and even a new office chair. I painted the walls teal and lilac (two colors that are supposed to enhance creativity, according to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feng Shui).
See how I have my writer’s resources carefully lined up—a dictionary, two thesauruses, grammar guides, and character naming books? A mug full of pens? A picture of my dog? A few toys to play with when I’m stuck? It’s the perfect workspace!
But…as you might be able to guess…from the neatness…and oh, I don’t know…the cat food bowl…
I don’t work here.
Not at the desk, anyway. Often during the last few weeks of a draft I will hole up in this room to finish the book, but I do it lounging on the twin bed. It’s not ergonomic, but it is cozy.
Here’s where I lived for the entire summer. I call it The Cave, aka the family room. In May, our greyhound Meadow hurt her back and needed to be confined while she healed. She preferred this room in the basement, where it was cool and where there was television. (Because of Meadow and this room, I became obsessed with the World Cup—she found the vuvuzelas quite soothing.)
(I have no idea how old that couch is—our neighbor gave it to us when we moved out of our previous house. It is not a color I would’ve chosen, though I’m sure it looked lovely in her home.)
When autumn arrived, I came out of the Cave. Here’s where I’m writing now:
This is our living room. On the left is Meadow, and on the right, a barely visible shiny black furry object, is our younger cat Twinkle. She turned two on Monday, when I took this picture. Meadow let her share her bed, as a gift, I suppose.
You can tell I’m planning a rewrite—note the lack of computer, the pile of research and writing books, and the black three-ring binder. And coffee. Always coffee. That mug, tragically, is empty.
(Extra points to anyone who can guess the year my parents bought that velveteen couch!)
As much as possible, I try to separate the creative side of my life from the business side. I usually write on an old, slow laptop with a sluggish internet connection (shown above in the family room photo). I named this laptop “Tardy,” after the turtle character from the TV show Greg the Bunny.
I do most business stuff on my newer laptop—called “Fang,” thanks to a naming contest I held among my readers. I work on Fang at the dining room table, seen here.
Hey, there’s that new office chair from 2003!
If I’m sitting at the table and look to my right, I can see a large farmer’s field, brimming with amber waves of grain.
Well, not on this particular day.
So…my routine. Another tough topic. A lot of writers find comfort in routine. They find that going to the same place every day and performing the same ritual helps their brains kick into creative high gear.
I used to be one of those writers, back when I was working full-time, taking classes part-time, and somehow still fitting a page a day into my schedule.
Or more precisely, back when I used a desktop computer.
Now that I write full-time—and now that I have a laptop—I’m a complete nomad. I’m allergic to routine. Structures? Schedules? To-do lists? Bleah. They just make me feel like a failure.
And yet, I’m constantly coming up with new routines and time management schemes to trick myself into working. I’ll try another author’s routine for a few weeks, then switch to another strategy for variety. I’m the hardest-working lazy person I know.
Many authors get their writing out of the way first thing in the morning. I’ve tried this, believing it to be the moral thing to do. It proves that writing is my first priority, right?
But I found that by literally putting writing first—as in chronologically—nothing else would get done. My brain doesn’t fully wake up until about 10am, so trying to write (or worse, edit) during the morning hours is a waste of time. I had a choice: start writing at 9am and finish at 6pm, or start writing at noon and finish at 6pm. Hmmm….
My mornings are pretty awesome—they have to be, to make up for being morning. I get up around 8, feed the beasts, then make breakfast for me and my husband (who telecommutes from home but has regular office hours). While I eat, I muck about on Twitter or e-mail, or read, or watch TV (right now I’m hooked on a Canadian show called SLINGS & ARROWS).
Around 10am (or, to be honest, noon), I start writing. Or rewriting, or editing, as the case may be. When I’m working on a rough draft, I set a daily word count goal.
Once I reach the halfway point in the manuscript, I figure out how much of the actual story is left to write. Inevitably I discover that even though I have half the necessary words, I haven’t told half the story. That’s the danger of having a word- or page-count goal—you get caught up in quantity instead of quality, and the scenes tend to be long and rambly. However, in a first draft, sometimes long, rambly scenes are just what’s needed to discover more about the characters and story.
Daily word-count targets also help me keep the long-term goal in perspective. Ideally I want to finish a rough draft at least six weeks ahead of deadline so my beta readers can give me feedback. (The keyword there is, “ideally.”) That Deadline-Minus-Six-Weeks is my target date. I have a spreadsheet that tells me how many words a day I need to write to hit that target. As I fall behind, my new daily word-count requirement grows.
And grows. And grows. The thought of it growing above 2,000 words a day scares me out of the temptation to tell myself, “I don’t feeeeeel like writing today, so I’ll take the day off.”
Okay, take the day off, but there will be consequences. The spreadsheet says so! Fear is a fantastic motivator.
Sometime around midday, my husband and I take Meadow for a walk down the lane to the neighbor’s farm to say hi to the horses. Here’s one of my favorites:
If I’m rewriting/editing, I measure the workday in hours instead of wordcount. I’ll start with a mere four or five hours per day, because after finishing a rough draft, my e-mail and Other Business Stuff is usually piled a mile high. Besides, I need to rest for the time ahead.
Because as I get closer to the rewrite deadline, the editing day will stretch into ten or twelve hours, and all other activity ceases (a twelve-hour day means working twelve hours, so it’s not ten a.m. to ten p.m.—it’s more like eight am to midnight). This is when my husband buys a lot of takeout food. He is pure awesome.
One more fun detail: each book usually has a “mascot,” an item that I keep near me while I write. It might be a model of an animal that I associate with the main character, or a prop from the book itself. In the photo of my office desk above, you might’ve noticed something odd:
I bought this at the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, which has the coolest, weirdest museum shop in the world. (A famous person said this, I can’t remember who but I’m pretty sure now was not Gwyneth Paltrow. If you’re a famous person reading this and you’re the one who said it, please speak up!)
This little guy is a stuffed chicken pox virus. Isn’t he cute? If you’ve read my most recent novel, BRING ON THE NIGHT (WVMP RADIO #3), you know why I have it.
Hope you enjoyed this tour of my life and house. Thanks again for inviting me to Book Chick City!
P.S.: If you come to her house this winter, bring a snow shovel. And dog biscuits.
Jeri Smith-Ready’s most recent release is the short story “Thief” in the YA vampire anthology ETERNAL: MORE LOVE STORIES WITH BITE, edited by PC Cast. 2011 will bring the second in her YA ghost series, SHIFT, and the fourth in her adult vampire series, LET IT BLEED. She loves to hear from readers, so please visit her at website, or better yet, on Facebook or Twitter, where she spends far too much time.
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13 Comments
This is my favorite 'Where Stories Are Made' post to date! Not only did Jeri share her writing space with us, but also her writing process. Very interesting and enjoyable. Thank you!
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Wow, this is so interesting, and I love "the cave"!
When I study I have to have a little bit of chaos around me, like my own little cave… if everything is so neat I cant consentrate lol!!!
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Thanks Jeri & BCC, this was a great column! And I'm glad Meadow's back is feeling better
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Aww, I loved this one! Absolutely fascinating.
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Another wonderful feature! I love the idea of having props for each book.
xx,
E.J.
From the Shadows
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Thank you for the wonderful post Jeri!
Love & Best Wishes,
Rob
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Hey everyone!
Michelle, glad you enjoyed the post!
Niecole, I agree–I like chaos, too, for creativity. Or maybe that's just how it ends up.
Greytfriend: Thanks so much! Meadow's much better, especially now that she's back to swim therapy. Greyhounds aren't the best swimmers, but she does her best.
Clover: Thanks! Glad my crazy ramblings have shed some light on my process of muddling through a book.
E.J.: It really does help to have something I can hold in my hand. Like I said, I'm not very visual, so the things remind me to keep the writing grounded in the real world.
Rob: Thanks! Glad you could stop by.
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Yay for Greg the Bunny!! Loved that show. And how awesome are the cover art posters??
Thanks for sharing your space and writing process Jeri.
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lol! I love that. True. Get the perfect space and create somewhere else.
I'd love to be over with my dogs and biscuits! No writing or creating would be done, however.
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Loved this one! Thanks for sharing Jeri!
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Karen: Wasn't Greg the Bunny a fantastic show? I can see why it didn't succeed, though–it was made with puppets but for a decidedly adult audience.
Melissa: Yes, I've never been one for staying in one place, even of my own making.
linaramz: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
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This was an amazing post – thank you so much Jeri for sharing your home and thoughts with us.
I love all that snow!!
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Best one yet.
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