Where & How I Work

I work almost entirely at home. The upside of this is that I work where I live – it’s the shortest commute in the history of commuting. I don’t, but I suppose I could work whilst in bed, meaning I’d wake up and literally be at work in the blink of an eye.

The downside is that I live where I work. Sometimes I wake up and – BOOM! – in the blink of an eye, I’m at work again. It wouldn’t be so bad if the cleaner did his job properly, the binman actually took out the bins, and the chef washed up his equipment after cooking, but somehow that rarely happens.

It would be fun to tell you I’m one of those glamorous writers that sits in their very own corner of a cosy coffee shop, smashing out book after book whilst looking arty, intellectual and biscuit-crumb-free. But that would be a lie. The truth is I’m banned from my local coffee shops for ‘drinking coffee too loudly’ and making other customers ‘uncomfortable’ by ‘staring too intently at the muffins.’ Plus, I was always covered in crumbs. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. Now that I work from home, I’m covered in cat hair instead. Not out of choice - that would be weird - but because Hokey, my exotic shorthair (her breed, not her nickname), is rarely far away:

At times, she’s rather helpful, filling in for me when I’m unable to be at my desk:

And at others, she’s not:

Anyway, I work almost entirely at a desk in my study:

From which there is a view of Chichester cathedral:

Granted, it’s rather inconsiderately interrupted. And sometimes I struggle to see it, especially if the weather’s rainy, or foggy, or I close my eyes. But I’ve a view, nonetheless.

How I work is very simple. I categorise my initial ideas into small, medium-sized, and enormous ideas.

For small ideas, I use this delightful little golf pencil: