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Where is your favourite place to write? Do you have any writing rituals?
In the office with a nice corner desk and enough room under it for my dog to curl up under when she’s in the mood! If I turn my head, I can look through my French windows out into the garden (the great thing being when I really need to focus I don’t do this and just have a wall in front of me instead!). I’ve a writing book and stationery cupboard (though my desk is still full with what I’m working on, writing books and magazines I’m currently wading through and lots of mints, pens and pencils). I like to work through my projects in the same order each night and like doing one or two puzzles before I start. I see this as waking my brain up though I do limit how much time I spend on the puzzles. I tend to write fairly late in the evening though I am trying to bring this forward (I like looking at my writing magazines and books first too though I read in short sharp slots) and I don’t feel as if I’ve had a good writing session unless I have done all of these things.
How many drafts do you produce?
It depends on what I’m working on but whether I write a novel, short story, poem or script, I tell myself to do as many drafts as are necessary. There’s usually at least three – the initial writing down of the idea, the go through the second time for spelling and grammar and the third go to check that the story actually makes sense. Often if I then have to do a major rewrite, that gets done and I go through the revision and rechecking processes again. I enjoy editing. It feels good to sense your story taking shape and ditching the phrases, repetition and other things that clog the tale up. I save my earlier drafts and use the blank side for running out my next draft and so on as I only need perfectly clear paper for printing out the final version. I see each stage as necessary and I consider a work finished when I really can’t see any other ways to improve it further