{"id":20515,"date":"2022-01-17T14:55:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T14:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/?p=20515"},"modified":"2022-01-17T14:55:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T14:55:36","slug":"where-i-write-gail-mcconnell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/01\/where-i-write-gail-mcconnell\/","title":{"rendered":"Where I write: Gail McConnell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Where do you write?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a small black moleskin notebook. I like the ones with a grid of dots. When nothing else is coming you can join the dots together and make shapes. Otherwise, blank pages. I can\u2019t be doing with lined notebooks. And I write in Word documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write wherever it comes. The whole business of trying to write is a bit weird. I prefer not to notice when I\u2019m doing it, at least at first. I\u2019ve written some recent things in the room with the grey carpet you see here. Those are our toddler\u2019s narwhals and a toppled toilet roll tower.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does your workspace look like?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some of the workspaces I\u2019ve loved the most have been the ones I\u2019ve found at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig: a residential workplace and residency programme for artists of all disciplines. It\u2019s a beautiful big house, formerly the home of Sir William Tyrone Guthrie, the theatre director. Everyone gathers at a big table for dinner each evening. I\u2019ve met so many interesting people there over the years. You have a bedroom with a desk and usually a beautiful view \u2013wonderful spaces for reading and writing. And because the rooms are generally rather large, they make particularly good workspaces for ordering and editing books. I finished the first revised draft of The Sun is Open<\/em> here a good few years ago. And I organised and structured the poems of Fothermather <\/em>here a while later. As long as I have access to the OED online, I can probably work anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What time of day do you write?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I like to try to write things early in the day. These days that means a couple of hours after our toddler wakes up on full power, and we wrestle him into clothes and habits of personal hygiene, encourage the consumption of porridge, apply a lot of E45, wrap him up in warm clothing, take him to childcare and return home. Somehow my brain still isn\u2019t working on full power after that, even after two cups of coffee, so I like to write before I know exactly what I\u2019m doing.
 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What font\/typeface do you use to write?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Something with serifs. Always. Georgia, Garamond, Baskerville. And Comic Sans when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has your writing space and practice changed over the years you’ve been writing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Parenthood has changed everything. I used to write in bed a lot more than I do now. And I would get to my writing without all of the morning rituals listed above. I was going to say I\u2019d get to my writing more quickly, but I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s true. I have to be more disciplined now. I aim for less time, but I try to make it count. Sometimes that means not writing. A lot of writing is not writing. It\u2019s reading. Going for walks. Keeping yourself going and letting the unconscious do its thing so that something, sometime, can come along. And then you\u2019ll be ready to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a cross between the Guardian\u2019s Writers\u2019 rooms and MTV Cribs, our \u2018Where I write\u2019 series brings you up close and personal with the furniture of our authors\u2019 lives to discover where \u2013 and how \u2013 the magic happens. In this episode, poet Gail McConnell takes us from a toy-strewn floor to a residential retreat and reveals the importance of not writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[313,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20515"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20537,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515\/revisions\/20537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}