When it comes to finding the perfect writing place, I’m the king of procrastination. ‘I’m not ready to write’, ‘I need to work in a clean environment’, ‘I only write late at night’ are all excuses I’ve used. There’s often a romance that surrounds writing and many people, including myself, have become caught into the idea that an idyllic setting is needed for writing. Sitting in a park on a warm summers day. Sat by the cracking fire and wrapped in a rug. Taking a week off to go to a secluded country cottage simply to write. However, I hate to break this misconception but it’s simply not true.

I remember seeing a documentary with J.K. Rowling. She was putting the last finishing touches to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a sparse, dull hotel room. No, I kid you not, she wrote the Harry Potter novels not in some ancient Scottish castle with dancing fire and romanticised candles, but in plain old ordinary settings.

Really, the key to writing is to just sit down and do it. That’s easy for me to say, but as a HUGE procrastinator myself, it really is the only way you’ll ever get anything done. Ok, so having an evening writing after a long soak, cleaning the house, and lighting some candles did get some chapters done. But, most of the time I was either in front of my old PC or in bed with a laptop and dribbling cat next to me. Not the perfect writing scene you may have imagined.

So, instead of waiting for the right moment to write, or the best environment to start tapping away, simply get scribbling. Setting aside some set personal writing time and not getting caught in the writers environment trap could make the difference to finishing your novel and not.