My Writing Room

Lots of writers have a place that they like to hide away in and produce fabulous novels. Many like the structure of a solid table and chairs, a notebook and expensive pen at the ready, but others prefer the cushions of their sofa and a tablet or laptop. I'm the latter.
While most of my first novel, Madeline, was written on my netbook, a lot of the book was simply written down on anything. Various apps installed on my phone housed numerous scenes ready for emailing to myself. University lecture notes turned into dramatic scenes and so on and so forth.
I do have a desk. It's home to a stylish printer that I bought exclusively for printing my novel pages out and performing a hard copy edit. And for university assignments, too... of course. I love my desk. I have sat for many hours at the little wooden structure, paying no attention to the sun giving way to the night or the rumbles in my stomach.
The only issues I have ever found with that desk is that it's a distraction. Various cups hold onto neat little pens, markers - every writer has an obsession with stationary. Behind my desk is my bookcase, filled with the inspiring stories that have started me on my journey. Then there is my writing file, home to every edit I've made, some typed, some hand written. But the worst thing... the drawers. Whenever a moment of pure block occurs, emptying drawers and find things you didn't realise you had becomes strangely therapeutic. Even the old pieces of foam you had used three years ago from your art project lurk at the bottom waiting to be discovered.
The desk is far to tempting for me. That's why I prefer the comfort of my sofa, or my bed. Either is good. The bed has a duvet... pillows... a warm electric blanket underneath... a small corner shelf, perfect to hold cups of hot chocolate and such. It's pretty much my heaven when I'm not 100% goal orientated on a novel.
By that, I mean, when I have nothing else to really do. I'm a fully time student. My psychology degree and nail technician course keep me occupied and stressed over referencing the right person in the correct way so marks won't be deducted.
When I was waiting to start university, I had months of empty time, given that I only work part time on the weekend. I filled my time with my novel simply because I could. I lived for it. Those six months flew by far too quickly, even if my novel only took four of those weeks to actually complete.
So what did I do with the rest of it?
I didn't plan my novel. That's something that didn't occur to me being a first time novel writer. I had no clue of the ending ahead of me, and that, when it started to approach, frightened me a little. I didn't want to disappoint myself. Luckily, every idea spilled into another and then another until a whole chain of thoughts just made sense, and, fortunately, I wasn't disappointed.
No. What I did was think about writing. I had the characters, but no background on them. I wanted to know who they were. Writing them might've been a very good way of doing so, but, given my studies, I wanted to look behind them. I had to get to know Maddie and Nicky, to become their closest friend. It worked. They now pester me at the most irrelevant of times.
Another thing I did was Research, while my research lacked on the simple things such as location, since my novel is set in America (and I'm British), most of it consisted of research on the topic of Maddie's situation. I understood the basics, and anyone with a wild imagination can create a demonic bully, but I wanted to know the effects of it - and thus where my access to psychology journals took place.
So six months past, and I lived inside my head. No notebooks became full, and no words were typed until the last four weeks, maybe three if you count only three days into the fourth week. Every thought I had was processed, revised during countless situations until I found the best for my novel, and stayed locked inside my thoughts. I'm amazed how my memory holds out. The "Madeline" box in my memory must be due for a spring clean come the new year, so I can refill it all over again - this time without it taking so much time.