How I Write – Marie Gethins

When/how/where do you write?

I’m really fortunate as I have a little room at the top of the house – yes, an actual garret. We live in a terraced Victorian house and there isn’t any heating on the top floor, so I have a sweet, blue Art Deco wood-burning stove for cold winter days. A dormer window and skylight make it bright. My desk faces away from them to avoid distraction. Generally my most creative time is late at night, but this is my paying work space as well, so I’m there most of the day.

Do you eat while you write? If so, what?

No, I spend so much time at the keyboard, that I consciously take a break to refuel in the kitchen. However I drink loads of water, coffee and peppermint tea.

Do you play music while you write? If so, what? 

I almost never play music while writing. A few times when I seemed a bit blocked, I made a playlist for a particular character or from the time period when I set the story, but 95% of the time I prefer silence.

What are you reading right now?

My current setting is Antarctica, so I am reading Jenny Diski’s Skating to Antarctica and Ilija Trojanow’s The Lamentations of Zeno.  (See pic!)