Fran is relieved to find out Annmarie doesn't own a Louis XIV writing desk

I'm intensely curious about other writers' routines and habits. For example, I'm greedy for those features in the arts pages of newspapers: 'This is my Louis XIV writing desk worth half a million pounds' or 'The view over bohemian Paris from my oak-panelled writing study.' 

I know what you're thinking. Dream on, Fran. 

Perhaps it is a kind of vicarious fascination, living another writer's life through the pages of the newspaper while sitting at my plain wooden desk, which still bears a sticky label white spirit hasn't shifted, and watching a recycling lorry appear in my street.  

I sent some questions to Annmarie Miles, another member of the Association of Christian Writers and now looking after Publicity and Social Media for the organisation. Annmarie is Irish and currently lives in Wales. 

I was nervous in case she turned out to have a Louis XIV writing desk in an oak-panelled study because the continual repenting from envy is frankly exhausting.

Phew. She didn't.  

Here are my questions and her answers. 

Fran: Where do you write? Send a photograph immediately, unless it's your toilet, in which case, lie. 

Annmarie: My desk is where I should write, but it's where I actually procrastinate. I was given a wonderful bureau, and I love it, but the view out the window is too lovely and I find myself dreaming. Quite often I actually write, curled in a strange position in an armchair in the sitting room. Himself and I listen to music in the evenings during the week and he reads while I either read or write. I have never written in a toilet (unless you count graffiti on a school toilet door in 1986). 

Fran: What time of day is best for your writing? If it's midnight, is that because you are really a werewolf?   

Annmarie: I used to stay up very late, but in the last year or two, I've started to yawn by about 4.30pm and am usually ready for bed by 8.30 but stretch it out 10.30. (Don't tell my fans, they still think I'm rock n' roll.) I have no set time. I finished work at the end of August due to a spell of depression. I try to do 'desk work' (social media, emails, solitaire etc)  in the morning, domestic malarky in the afternoon, and my weird armchair contortions in the evening.

Fran: What do you use to write? A laptop? A pen? Pencil? Live-in secretary?

Annmarie:  I mostly use a laptop as my writing is illegible after a couple of sentences. I have to write shopping lists out twice as my husband does the shopping and he is not yet fluent in hieroglyphics. If I'm going to my writing group or to a workshop (remember when we used to be allowed out?) I always bring a notebook and pen. It looks far more Hemingway. Although now that I think of it, he used a typewriter, but I'm not lugging one of those around. I don't have a live-in secretary, but having a personal grocery shopper is far more beneficial. 

Fran: What's your best tip for new writers? And I don't mean the council dump. 

Annmarie: Get the idea/words/story out of your head and onto a page. You won't know if it's any good until it's on a page. 

Fran: What do you use to sustain you while writing? Coffee or tea? Biscuits or cake? Rocket leaves on a bed of steak tartare dribbled with blackberry jus?  

 

Annmarie: I do like coffee and my homemade low carb biccies (included in domestic malarky), but I drink a lot of water during the day. I'm on a low carb diet and always have a collection of sugar free 'sucky sweets' as they call them at home, and that's what I tend to dip into when writing. I love freezing cold water with boiled sweets and could happily write for ages just drinking water (and running to the loo). 

And then there were ten

Fran is a writer and English teacher living in Warwickshire. Her latest book is 'Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?' - a funny teacher memoir written in diary form and published by SPCK Publishing. Find out more about Fran and her work right here

Annmarie's latest book is 'Gorse Lodge'. You can find out all about Annmarie right here