NaNoWriMo Tips: An Ongoing List of Writing Tips & Links to Helpful Articles

Whether you’re writing your first novel this month during NaNoWriMo, or maybe writing your tenth, I’m reserving this space to gather helpful tips and ideas I’m gathering from across the net. If you have a helpful tip or link, please add it in the comments. :-) I’ll keep adding to this over the month.

Having trouble kickstarting your creativity? I found this post quite encouraging. It helped me understand why the daily writing habit (which I'm out of at the moment but hoping NaNo will change that) is so important. 

Creative Flow and Brain Wave States by Suzanne Murry

Incidentally, I’ve been using music with embedded brain wave stimulation for years. If you’re interested in trying it, I recommend Solfeggio Harmonics by Source Vibrations (link takes you to iTunes (not an affiliate link).

Writer Wednesday: Acting Professional by Randy Ingermanson

Photo Courtesy Pexels.com

I can’t believe it’s December, y’all! And that means that in less than a month, it will be time for PENuary. In support of encouraging better writing habits—for myself as well as other writers who struggle to maintain consistency—I’m working to re-establish my Writer Wednesday habit here on the blog. If you’re a writer, check in on Wednesdays for writing and marketing tips as well as writer inspiration.

Today I’m sharing a post for writers written by Randy Ingermanson (credit and links to his website below the article). If you don’t already subscribe to Randy’s E-Zine, I highly recommend it. His newsletters always contain useful tips for writers.

There are many aspects of marketing, but in this article, Randy succinctly pinpointed an issue that all writers need to take to heart: Professionalism. And he has three easy, highly actionable tips to improve your writer professionalism.

Marketing: Acting Professional

I went to my first writing conference in the summer of 1989. That was life-changing for me. Up till then, I didn’t know any authors. Or editors. Or agents. I met a few of each at that first conference, and some of them have been part of my life ever since.

The talk that had the most impact on me at that conference had a very simple message: “Be professional.” 

The author who gave the talk said a lot of things I don’t remember, but I do remember her repeating that simple phrase. “Be professional.” And I remember that she translated it into actions. “Being professional” really boils down to “acting professional.”

She wasn’t talking about being phony. There are writers out there who talk a big talk but aren’t actually doing much writing and certainly aren’t professional.

She was talking about behaving in a way that marks you out as a serious writer who will someday be a professional writer, even if you aren’t there yet and aren’t making any money. Writers who start out right tend to end up right. That’s just the way it is.

Back in those days, “acting professional” included getting some expensive letterhead paper for correspondence with editors. I dutifully went out and bought a ream of high-quality paper and spent some time creating an electronic template that would make a nice letterhead when printed. I even used it a few times. But I’d bet I’ve still got 480 sheets out of the original 500. Times have moved on, and nobody needs letterhead anymore. 

So what can a writer do that will fit the description of “acting professional” these days? I don’t want to overwhelm you with a long list, so I’ll keep this short.

Here are three things for starters.

Set up a Writing Budget

Very early on in my writing career, I realized that it takes money to make money. In those days, going to writing conferences was essential, and conferences cost money. I didn’t have a lot of cash, but I began setting aside $15 every month. That was money that I could spend on my writing, no questions asked.

The amount you budget is less important than the fact that you’re doing it. 

Having a writing budget means that you are serious about this writing thing. It means that you’re telling the rest of your family that this is important to you, it has value, and it has a cost. It also means that when it comes time to buy something you need for your writing, you don’t have to fight about it with anyone. You just take the money out of the pot you’ve already set aside.

Own Your Domain

Your “domain” here means the domain for your web site. You may not need a web site yet. You may not need one for several years.

But eventually, if and when you start getting your work published, you’ll need a domain for your web site. And it won’t be fun to discover that the domain you had in mind just got bought by a porn star who happens to have your same name. It can happen. It did happen to a writer I know.

You don’t buy a domain name; you rent it. You pay an annual fee to a domain registration site (for example GoDaddy.com or one of the many other sites that let you register a domain). 

It’s not terribly expensive to rent a domain. Figure around $10 per year. You just need to keep paying it every year without lapsing. It’s easy to set up an auto-renewal for your domain so it keeps renewing every year.

Ideally, your domain name should be your author name or something as close as you can get to your author name. 

But you need to be careful here. If your name is hard to spell (say your last name is Umstattd), then you’ll catch a lot of grief from people who can’t spell your name, which is almost everyone. In that case, you might want to think about not using your last name in your domain. You might need to get creative here.

Let's say your name is a more common one that's reasonably easy to spell. We'll take Jane Smith, as an example. What domain name should you use? There are a couple of issues to think about.

First, if you create a web site using one of the inexpensive builder tools (for example, Wordpress.com), you should make sure you get a custom domain—not the default Wordpress domain. You don’t want to spend five years building a site at JaneSmith.wordpress.com, and then move it to JaneSmith.com. If you do that, all the links to your old web site will fail.

Second, if your name is extremely common, it might turn out that the domain you want is already taken. If JaneSmith.com is taken, you might have to add a middle initial and make it JaneKSmith.com. Or JaneSmithAuthor.com. Or JaneSmithBooks.com. Generally, with a bit of thinking, you can find a domain that works for you.

With domain names, shorter is better. And it’s nice if you can pass the “radio test,” meaning that if you’re doing an interview on the radio and give out your web site address, people can easily figure out how to spell it. But you can’t always get exactly what you want. Do your best.

Have a Professional E-mail Address

This is easy to do, but it’s where a lot of writers fall down. 

There are two mistakes to make here:

1. Using an e-mail address with a domain that isn’t yours.
2. Using an e-mail address that doesn’t have your name in it.

Let’s talk about these in a little more detail. It’s important to get these right, but you need to also do them in the correct order.

First, your domain name. It’s very tempting to use the free e-mail address that comes with your internet service provider. So if you’re using Comcast, then maybe your account is John17@comcast.net. 

The problem comes five years from now, when you move to a new place and you’re no longer with Comcast. Now maybe you’re using ATT.com or CenturyLink.net or whatever. And suddenly your old e-mail address no longer works.

Now you’ve got five years worth of friends who all have the wrong e-mail address for you. If these include all your editor, agent, and writer friends, you’ve got a problem.

The solution is blindingly simple. If you’ve already nailed down your domain for your future web site, set up an e-mail account that goes with that domain. So if your domain is JaneKSmith.com, set up an email address for yourself as Jane@JaneKSmith.com. Later, if you get a virtual assistant, she might be Camy@JaneKSmith.com. If you add a PR guy, he might be Brad@JaneKSmith.com. Or if you change PR people every six months, maybe the email address they use will just be the generic PR@JaneKSmith.com. 

Some writers insist that they can’t set up an e-mail address on their own domain yet because it’s too much trouble. So they set up a free account at hotmail or yahoo or gmail or whatever. 

This is not ideal. A hotmail or yahoo email account definitely marks you as an amateur. A gmail account is a step up; it’s perceived as more professional. If you insist on using a gmail account, you still need to make sure that your name is part of your address. 

JaneKSmith@gmail.com is an acceptable e-mail address. If somebody gets an e-mail from that address, they know who sent it.

But imagine getting e-mail from any of these people:

• Jack1947@gmail.com  (Now we all know what year Jack was born, but he may not want us to know that. Unfortunately, we don’t know his last name, and he probably does want us to know that. Who is this Jack?)
• JaneAndBillAnd3Cats@gmail.com (This looks like a shared account, which means an e-mail sent to Jane might get read by Bill. Or deleted by Bill. But what happens if Jane and Bill split up next year? Who keeps the e-mail address? And again, who is Jane?)
• IWrite4Jesus@gmail.com (Great, but who ARE you? And does Jesus know you’re writing for him?)
• SpaghettiMonsterGuy@gmail.com. (No doubt this is hilariously funny to your five buddies you hung out with in college. However, the rest of us aren’t in on the joke. Also, we have no idea who you are.)

And yes, I’ve seen e-mail addresses similar to each of these, some of them many times. 

Act like a professional. Get an e-mail address that looks like it came from you. (And yes, I know that you can set up your e-mail program to put your name in the “from” line along with your e-mail address. Not everybody does this. Oddly enough, it’s usually the people with unrecognizable e-mail addresses who don’t do this.)

This article is reprinted by permission of the author.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 17,000 readers. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Writer Wednesday: Utter Loneliness and Explaining the Inexplicable

This quote captures such expansive ideas in so few words.

First is the idea of the loneliness of writing. And “utter loneliness”. Like really, really alone!

I have felt that way at times. It's not just that the actual act of writing requires - for many of us - time without other people so that we're free of distraction. Even in a busy cafe, writers often wear headphones or are so in the zone that they may as well be on Mars. For all intents and purposes, the writer is alone when writing.

But more than that, the writer inhabits a world of her own making with people she has created. Within that story world, the writer is wholly alone. 

I often feel that I spend the majority of my time with people that no one else knows in a world where no one else has been. The idea of “utter loneliness” is one I understand.

But here there is the second idea as well - trying to “explain the inexplicable.”

How does one explain the soul?

I think all artists and creatives are - attempting anyway - to do exactly that. To somehow explain whether in words or pictures, in clay or movement, the complex and nuanced ideas that well from the soul.

There is no perfection in this endeavor. The artist often looks at his canvas and sees only what did not make its way there, even when others laud the work.

The same is true of the story or poem. At my best, I feel that I've captured a fair bit of what my heart wanted to express. But there's always a feeling that I didn't quite get it all down on paper. That something is missing.

Perhaps it's that quest to “bleed on the page” - to explain the inexplicable - that keeps the writer tapping the keys and putting ink to the page.

Do you ever feel utterly alone? Do you agree with Steinbeck that the writer seeks to explain the inexplicable?

Writer Wednesday: Ray Bradbury says …

I recently posted this meme on my Facebook page and Twitter and posed the question of whether this idea is perhaps the hardest part of being a writer. It led to further conversation about the true meaning of this quote. Some balked at the idea of “reject acceptance.”

But in order to fully embrace “accept rejection,” one must also learn to reject acceptance. You cannot have one without the other.

Why?

The artist must perpetually seek joy in the creation of the art regardless of external gratification or criticism. 

Writing for approval is the path to the dark side.

The writer writes because she has a story to tell. It's like an itch that needs scratched. Writing is a way to give the “voices” in her head space to be heard. The writer puts words to the page not to get a gold star or win the prize but because life is incomplete without the act of writing.

The writer grows and matures in his craft when he learns how to know when the work is “good” and when a piece is finished. He does not need someone external to approve of the story. He writes the story of his soul, not the story that he believes others want him to write and/or that others will accept.

And the great beauty of this process is that when an artist/writer/poet/creator digs deep and stays true to his path - when he accepts rejection and rejects acceptance - he is more likely to create a work that is lauded by others. Such works are seen as creative, original, and masterpieces.

Of course not all masterpieces of the soul are recognized as such. But that does not matter to the artist because she did not labor for the purpose of acceptance anyway. She labored because the story needed to be told and she was the only one that could tell it.

Because writing is a metaphor for life, the same holds true for how we live. 

And that is, I think, the most difficult part of both. To live the life our soul seeks to live without need for others to tell us "good job" and to stay on our path even when others are hell-bent on pushing us onto another road.

Why do you write? Do you feel that you have achieved Bradbury's advice - to accept rejection and reject acceptance? Do you agree with Bradbury?

Writer Wednesday: How to Create Your Own Writing Retreat

When I say "writing retreat" do you think of this?

Or maybe this?

For me, "retreat" means free of distraction. Time devoted to the thing I'm "retreating" for. Whether it's for a few days or a few weeks, when I say I'm going to a writing retreat, I mean that I'm going to spend time doing essentially one thing only from morning to night (and sometimes well into the night): Write.

A writing retreat can be a great way to get yourself back into writing if you've had a long break. It's also perfect for when you're nearly done with a project and need to do a last final push to get to the end. 

Writing retreats can happen with a small group of writers (friends or strangers) or they can be solo affairs. They can be high-end posh affairs that ensconce the writer in luxury, or they can be bare bones and simple where the focus is on writing.

If you have the funds, you can travel to a cool location for a hosted writing retreat in the company of other writers. I've done this before, and it was great fun. But there are two problems with this kind of retreat. First, it can cost quite a bit. From a few hundred to several thousand. Second, I have found that often the programming takes up a lot of time which means that there's little time for what you probably came for: Writing!

But you don't have to travel to an exotic location or spend thousands to have a writing retreat experience. You can create a writing retreat for yourself or your small group. Here a few tips to ensure a great experience:

1.  Retreat! You can schedule a few nights in a hotel in town or maybe the next city over. Or you can send your family away for the weekend and take over the house. Staying in your home environment doesn't feel "retreat" enough? How about a short car trip? I've done all three of these, and any of them will work. The main thing is to find a way to give yourself time without distraction. No kids, spouse, significant other, housemate or responsibility for taking care of other people. This is probably the most important thing. You don't want to have to worry about whether other people are being taken care of. Use the resources at your disposal (spouse, parents, sister/brother, friends, etc.) to take care of others you usually have primary or co-responsibility for. Schedule yourself at least 48 hours of time when you are only responsible for you. Makes your lists and obsess about the details ahead if you must. But once you've shuttled all responsibility to the others, let it go. You're on writing retreat now!

2. Plan Ahead: Book your hotel in advance. Find others to help take care of the kids (and dogs, etc.). Schedule time off of work. And if you're retreating at home, consider a meal subscription service or cook and freeze meals ahead for yourself. For me, cooking is relaxing and enjoyable, so I pamper myself with Plated or Blue Apron and take a break from writing, pour a glass of wine and cook myself a tasty, gourmet meal. If you hate to cook, order takeout or go to a local restaurant (that way you don't have to clean up!). 

3. Unplug: Are you easily distracted by cat videos and toddler memes? Do you get on Twitter and two hours later find yourself still engrossed in tweet after tweet? Or maybe you find it impossible not to open email when you see a notification pop up. Regardless of your general level of distraction, UNPLUG! This is not negotiable. Let everyone know that you'll be away for a few days. Your readers, fans, and family will be supportive. After all, they want to read your next book (or story or poem). So close your email, turn off the ringer, put your phone in "Do Not Disturb", leave the television off. Play music that feeds your soul and allow that to be the only soundtrack to your writing weekend.

4. Have Your Tools Ready: Make sure you have the tools you need to write as much as you want and can. If you write with a pen on paper, ensure that you have plenty of both. And this is no time to skimp. Get the good paper (I love Moleskine notebooks - smooth paper without drag). Get out the good pen that feels great in your hand and make sure you have plenty of ink refills. If you write on a computer, ensure that you have batteries for your mouse and a comfortable keyboard.

5. Pamper: Next to creating a space free of distraction, the next most important part of a retreat is to feel pampered. Make it special for yourself. Get a nice bottle of wine (not the "2 Buck Chuck" from the bottom shelf). Tea or coffee drinker? Stock up on your favorite. If baths are a luxurious ritual you rarely have time for, make sure you have the supplies for a soothing bath during your retreat. Schedule a massage for a break and to ease the tension in your tight shoulders. Buy some good quality dark chocolate or another treat that feels special to you. Get out the candles and create an ambience to support your muse. Think ahead of time about what feels luxurious - special - to you then create that in your space.

Unplug, retreat and pamper. Give yourself the opportunity to freely follow the creative urge and see what happens.  Cheers!

Writer Wednesday: Crafting an Antagonist that People Love to Hate

The work of developing characters is often the most fun part of writing for me. I’m learning who the people are that I’ll “work with” over the next several months. While it’s a lot of work (I often have several notebooks of character history, genealogy charts, and pivotal backstory scenes that never make it to the final work), it’s necessary and enjoyable to see the characters unfold before my eyes.

Generally, the protagonist and her motivation and goals come fairly quickly to me. Protagonist motivations and goals are often easily relatable – even noble.

But the antagonist is usually much more difficult. When creating a bad guy (or girl) character, it is harder than it may seem to craft a believable “baddy” without resorting to stereotypes or having the character seem like a caricature – a “stock” villain.

Additionally, antagonists are – by their nature – antagonistic to the goals of the protagonist. Goals that, as I’ve already mentioned, are usually relatable and even heroic. This push against the noble goal means that by definition the antagonist may be someone that isn’t very likable. The villain may even be downright frightening.

People often ask me if my characters are based on myself or people I know. The truth is that all characters are a combination of personalities and traits of people that I’ve met/known/observed as well as my own personality. It’s me plus all I’ve known in my life – which is another way of saying all the characters are me.

And it can be scary to delve into that part of yourself. To search within for the motivations/traits/goals/ambitions, etc. that are contrary to the noble and heroic person that we strive to be.

Helen Mirren as Commander Lilly Sturgis

When I first conceived of Commander Lillian Sturgis, the antagonist in H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath, she was more of a “stock” villain – the ubiquitous evil scientist. But with the help of my editors, I saw that she had the capacity to be so much more. And that the story demanded that she be more.

The problem was that I had not (at that time) worked on Sturgis’ backstory. I hadn’t taken the time to explore Commander Sturgis in the same way I had my main characters. When I went back and worked more on Commander Sturgis, I realized she had a pretty incredible story. She became more fleshed out. And when that happened, she became a larger part of not only The Deep Beneath but of the remaining books in the series.

By knowing who she is – not just what she does to move the plot along – I was able to sprinkle in actions/thoughts here and there to show more of her personality. At times we see Sturgis as a brilliant woman struggling to make her mark in a man’s world. At other times, we see her as downright creepy. Looking through Sturgis’ lens on the world, she certainly sees herself as heroic even if the main character thinks she’s a crazy bitch!

The antagonist is often the most difficult character to get a grip on, but it’s truly rewarding when I’m able to craft a villain that people love to hate. I hope readers love to hate Commander Sturgis as much as I do!

Writer Wednesday: Call for November Guest Post Writers

A CALL FOR GUEST POSTS IN NOVEMBER!!

It's mid-August. My daughter is already back in school. It's still hot and sticky. The grocery store is not yet filled to the rafters with holiday candy.

Yet NaNoWriMo is sneaking up on the calendar. I'm still not sure if I'm going to throw myself into that much literary abandon this year. I'm still working on novel #5 (The Makers, Book 2 of the H.A.L.F. series). But maybe I'll work on #6 while editing #5. 

A girl can dream.

Even if I don't bust out 50k this November, I'll support those who commit to NaNoWriMo. I'll devote my blog for the entire month of November to writing tips, NaNoWriMo survival and war stories, and general encouragement for writers.

And I need your help. Do you have a NaNoWriMo success story? Beautiful failure story? 

Do you have a writing tip or two that you'd like to share? Are you a natural-born cheerleader?

If so, I want you!

I'm seeking guest post writers throughout the month of November. If interested, here is what I'll need (sign up link after the details):

1. A guest post that supports NaNoWriMo and writers in general. It can be writing or editing tip(s); encouragement; a story of your own writing experience or NaNoWriMo experience (a success story or a "failure" that you learned from); or any other post that will fit with the theme of supporting writers and NaNoWriMo'ers on their journey. The post should be approx. 500 words and must include one photo or other image to which you own the appropriate rights.

2. An author photo and bio as well as links to any and all social media and/or websites that you'd like to link to.

3. If you are a published author, you may include image of one cover and a brief (150 words or less) description of a title that you'd like to promote.

4. Lastly, I will be doing a Rafflecopter for a mega book giveaway for the month of November. If you'd like to participate, let me know what you register and let me know what book you'd like to include in the giveaway. **NOTE: The giveaway is for ebooks or audio books (digital) only, not paperback or hardcover.

If you're interested, please go to this link and sign up for the date you'd like your guest post to appear. **PLEASE NOTE: I will need all material for your post AT LEAST ONE WEEK prior to the date of your post.

Thanks and I look forward to reading your posts!

Writer Wednesday: Taking a Bite out of "Teeth" with Author Chele Cooke

I'm happy to welcome Chele Cooke back to the blog. We're celebrating her new release, Teeth: The First Bite. Please make sure you read down to the bottom of this post to enter Chele's giveaway :-) And please stop by Chele's other tour stops (list at bottom of post).

Here's the blurb for Teeth:

Medical intern Thomas awakes in a blood-drenched basement and the realisation that his life must change forever. After all, how can he practise medicine when the smell of blood turns him into a vicious killer? 

Spencer thinks being a vampire is better than any teen movie made it out to be. Now he must train Thomas and make his mentor proud. 

One mistake risks more than either are willing to lose, and a single broken law could turn them from predators to prey.

She had me at blood-drenched basement! 

Here are the details about Teeth:

Author: Chele Cooke

Title: Teeth (Teeth #1)

Genre: Paranormal Horror

Publisher: Self-Published

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Published: 8^th January 2015

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23532849-teeth?from_search=true

Amazon UK Buy Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teeth-First-Bite-Chele-Cooke-ebook/dp/B00QHK4UBW/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Amazon US Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QHK4UBW

Kobo Books: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/teeth-7

Nook Books: http://www.nook.com/gb/ebooks/teeth-by-chele-cooke/2940150002135

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/508832

And without further ado, a guest post by Chele: 

My Top Ten Places to Write

by Chele Cooke

It used to be that I could write anywhere. I don’t know what changed in the last ten years, but when I was a teenager I could write with the television on in the background or with people talking around me. At that point, one of my favourite places to write was at open mic nights. I would listen to the music and jot down my thoughts.

I can’t really do that anymore. I need a certain amount of control of my surroundings to get into a writing frame of mind, even if it’s just by putting on my headphones with a playlist I’ve picked out. Still, even with this need for control, I have a number of places I find great for writing.

1. My bedroom.

I live in a shared house with four other people, so as you can imagine, our house gets quite busy at times. When I really need to concentrate, there is no where better than my bedroom. I have my desk and comfortable desk chair set up. When I sit there, it is like a switch turns in my head to say “this is writing time now.”

2. Our living room

When the house is quiet, I like sitting in the living room. We have a corner sofa, so I’ll sit right in the corner, stretch out with my laptop, and get to it.

3. Big Green Bookshop’s Literary Lock In

Once a year, the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, near where I live, have a Literary Lock In for NaNoWriMo. It starts at 7pm and ends at 7am with forty people crammed into a small bookshop. It’s crowded and uncomfortable a lot of the time, but I find that I can write really well with lots of people around me doing the same thing. Generally I’ll get about 10k written in those 12 hours. Knowing everyone around you is working hard is a great motivator.

4. Blue Danube, San Francisco

From the ages of 14 to 16 I lived in San Francisco with my mother and step-father. Whilst I was there I met three people who would turn into my best friends. I don’t see them very often, but when I do it’s like we’ve never missed a beat. They’re all very creative, and so when I get to visit them, we’ll often go to a great little coffee shop called Blue Danube and get some work done on projects. Whether we’re writing, knitting, cross stitching, or drawing, we’ll chat and have great refreshments whilst we dip in and out of working. I do have to put on my headphones to do a writing sprint, but knowing they’re there feels so natural to me that it’s easy to get writing done.

Blue Danube is actually the inspiration for the coffee shop in Teeth where Paige works.

5. Trains, airplanes, and busses, oh my.

There is a great anonymity on public transportation and writing is a great passage of time. As I said above, I visit San Francisco semi-regularly, and that ten hour journey is a great excuse to get a lot of work done. I find it much easier to do this on transportation with tables, (trains and airplanes) but a bus will work when I need it to.

Plus, you never know what sort of inspiration you’ll get from the people around you.

6. Writing Group Write-Ins

I attend a writing group on Wednesdays and I’ve become quite good friends with some of the people there. We decided to have monthly write-ins under the same vein of the write-ins that are organised for NaNoWriMo in November. However, instead of going to a coffee shop, we all go to each other’s houses and spend an afternoon doing writing sprints and then having breaks for refreshments and chatting.

7. At Work. Shhhh!

Don’t tell anyone, but I actually get a lot of editing done at my day job. When it’s quiet, of course. Being set up at a proper desk with a good chair and a desktop is really helpful for getting work done. I can’t get fully into a ‘do not disturb me’ writing zone, as I need to answer the phones and help students/contractors/etc, but I can at least do a lot of planning and editing.

8. On my commute

This is especially true in NaNoWriMo when I’m trying to hit the desired word count every day. My journey to and from work takes about 45 minutes and I can get about 600 words done on a good day. That, of course, depends on whether I get a seat on the tube or not. It’s hard to type on your phone when you’re also trying to stay upright.

9. My old bedroom

I lived with my dad until I was 25. I moved out for University, but when I graduated I was back living with my parents whilst working for Holiday Inn as a receptionist. I have a lot of nostalgia for that bedroom, as it was my bedroom from eight years old. Plus, I’m very close to my family, so having them close by whilst I write is comforting to me.

10. Night time

Not really a place, but it’s certainly my favourite time to write. I’ve been a night owl for years, and even though I now have a 9-5 job and can’t often stay up until 3am, on the weekends I will often stay up late and get a lot of work done after 11pm.

I think it’s that the house is quiet. It’s just me and my imagination awake in the house. I really like that. Not to mention that when writing about vampires, it’s always helpful to do it when the sun isn’t shining. Call it mood writing.

I love that - "mood writing". I think Chele just coined an awesome phrase.

If you're a writer, where is your favorite place to write?

If you're a reader, where is your favorite place to read?

Thank you, Chele, for sharing Teeth with us. I'm looking forward to reading it :-)

Part time author and full time fantacist, Chele Cooke is a sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal author living in London, UK.

While some know they want to write stories since childhood, Chele first started writing as a teenager writing fanfiction and roleplaying. Before long playing in other people's worlds wasn't enough and she started creating her own. Living in San Francisco at the time, she found a lot of inspiration in her favourite city, some of which can be found in her books.

With a degree in Creative Writing, Chele's first novel was published in 2013. She currently has three books published: two books in a sci-fi series, Out of Orbit, and the first book of a vampire serial, Teeth.

Author Links:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CheleCooke

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CheleCookeWriting

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7257036.Chele_Cooke

Website: www.chelecooke.com

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