Jessie Greengrass has been shortlisted for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction with Sight. We caught up with Jessie to ask her about her workspace, and her writing process.
Where do you write?
I’d love to say that I have a marvelous place to write which is peaceful and tasteful and ever so inspirational, but I live in a two bedroom house with a 3 year old and my partner, who runs a business out of our attic. I don’t have any particular place of my own so I write where ever I’m least likely to be disturbed. Since my main writing time is early in the morning this is usually in bed, blearily, with a laptop on my knees, trying not to listen to arguments about socks. On the rare occasions when everyone else is out for a few hours I get to migrate to the sofa, and jolly freeing it is too.
What do you have on your desk?
There’s a table in the corner of our bedroom which is very euphemistically called my desk. Its surface is largely invisible due to:
Piles of laundry
Unopened bank statements
Pictures of Elsa from Frozen
Envelopes I’ve scribbled notes on because I couldn’t find anything closer
Books I promise I will read before I’m dead
Which is the most inspiring object in your workspace?
Oh, one day it will be something very rare and beautiful. At the moment it’s just all of the other things (cf. laundry) which I want to do at 7 a.m. even less than I want to do any writing. Although I do have a picture of Mog from Mog the Forgetful Cat, when she sits in the dark thinking dark thoughts, and I find that very soothing to look at.
What can you see from your window?
Nondescript sky. Roofs. Pigeons. A street lamp. Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, the window cleaner, who is a very tactful man and has never once mentioned how often he has seen me eating porridge déshabillé while trying to write.
