NIGHT SCHOOL BLOG TOUR - Location, Location,... Sound

A new week, a new blog tour! Today, C.J. Daugherty takes over the blog to chats about how she writes and her playlist to Night School (all the music will be at the bottom of the post so you can have a listen and discover something new...). So, let's go!

Every writer will tell you that they should be able to write anywhere. And every writer will probably tell you that they can’t. Most of us need a bit of quiet and a bit of space to set up our computers and think up a story.

I live in a fairly small house, so finding space to work wasn’t easy.

I did a lot of moseying around my own house and considering spaces. First the spare room – too bedroomy, and needed by guests – then the stairwell, but it’s a STAIRWELL, for god’s sake, and … well.

There’s not much else here, to be honest.

In the end I settled on the dining room. A dining room table makes a rather spacious desk, I must say. With LOTS of chairs for visitors to sit in, should I ever have a visitor while I’m writing. Unlikely, I know. And that brings up another issue…

Writing at home can be a lonely business. When you’re a fiction writer you don’t spend a lot of time working the phones. People don’t come around very often for meetings. Everything’s done by email and post. If you’re a bit of a social type you’ll soon go a bit crazy. Talking to the coffee maker crazy. Scaring the postman by refusing to let him leave until he’s heard a thorough explanation of your feelings about the weather crazy.

Given that I am a social type, I’m extremely lucky about two things. First, that my husband works from home most days, so I can go upstairs and discuss the weather with him (until he gives me that really patient ‘darling-I-have-work-to-do’ look).

And second, that we also have several four-legged housemates.

When I’m working my cat, Maybe, is almost always sitting on her throne – I mean, cushion – beside my computer, occasionally reaching out one delicate claw to remind me that petting is compulsory. And, Fulcrum, my fluffy beast of a dog, accompanies me on the afternoon walks where I work out sticky plot issues along with shoulder kinks. She bounds along and looks for squirrels as I wander through the woods near my house. Which, come to think of it, are a lot like the woods around Cimmeria Academy.

Then there’s music. When my thoughts get a bit stuck, I blast out a few tunes that remind me of the characters and where they are in their lives. And that can help me get going again.


Night School Playlist
These are the songs that always help me get the plot moving again.

Rock and Roll High School, The Ramones
Because I’m Awesome, The Dollyrots
Pot Kettle Black, Tilly and the Wall
Always Looking, Dum Dum Girls
When I’m With You, Best Coast
The Light is You, Said the Whale
New Slang, The Shins
When I Grow Up, First Aid Kit
Such Great Heights, Iron and Wine
Comptine d’un autre été, Yann Tiersen