Show Your Working: Sinéad Stubbins

Show Your Working is a regular column exploring how some of our favourite writers get things done. This month, we take a peek into the writing routine of author Sinéad Stubbins, whose new book In My Defence, I Have No Defence is out now from Affirm Press.

What does your workspace look like? 

My workspace changes depending on the task and if my boyfriend is home very loudly playing his belly like a bongo drum, a favourite pastime of his. If I am writing, I usually set myself up on the couch in the living room and drink massive amounts of French press coffee while staring out the window and trying to remember how to be funny. I love having a window to peer out of and my current apartment has a very lovely (and leafy) courtyard to look at. If the belly bongo player is home, I usually set myself up in the bedroom and listen to movie soundtracks very loudly. I like to sit on the floor because in all respects, I am a baby.

If I’m doing hardcore, serious edits (or one of my day jobs) I work at my desk in the spare room. This room is a bit chaotic (it’s where we chuck things like a plastic Christmas tree, the vacuum cleaner, the clothes horse, one broken tent, one non-broken tent, etc. ) so I don’t love working in there. But I know working at a desk is better for my back and it’s a good place to spend a long time doing boring work I don’t necessarily want to do. I think I gravitate towards the prettier and more organised rooms in the house when I need to be creative. Could I solve this by just making the spare room a bit nicer? I have no interest in finding out.

My work desk is covered in post-its where I have scribbled things like ‘show yourself compassion!’

My work desk is fairly chaotic. It’s covered in post-its where I have scribbled things like ‘show yourself compassion!’ and other catastrophically anxious things, to try to remind myself how to function like a healthy adult. I did find one the other day that just said ‘story?’ which is sweet.

When I was writing my book I was working full-time and could only write on the weekends. Luckily, my boyfriend worked Saturdays, so when he would come home at 6pm I would just call it a day. It was a pretty good system, because I began to look forward to that pocket of quiet where I would work at the coffee table, light some incense and eat cut up fruit and handfuls of popcorn like a small prince.

Are you an analog or digital writer?

A bit of both. I write all my stories on my laptop, but if I’m feeling a bit confused, I usually write down story structures in my notebook. Luckily, when you’re a writer, people will give you notebooks for every holiday or birthday until you die. I find them very handy, except when someone gifts me a notebook that’s too fancy and I feel guilty writing ideas like ‘I wonder if Jesus Christ ever told his disciples to fuck off?’ When I was trying to figure out the order of essays for my book, I wrote each essay title on pieces of cardboard and arranged them on my bedroom floor. This system worked fantastically until I opened the window.

Luckily, when you’re a writer, people will give you notebooks for every holiday or birthday until you die.

I also use my notebook to untangle problems in my head, particularly if I’m worried about something I’m writing. It’s how I untangle most things, not just issues with my work. I use a physical diary too and write a to-do list everyday (if I’m feeling a bit anxious, I even write things like ‘Send this specific email’ or ‘Reply to this text’ just so I can tick stuff off). If I don’t write something down, I will almost certainly forget to do it.

I do tend to write funny sentences or stories I’ve heard in my Notes app, but this only seems to work 50 per cent of the time. Sometimes I find the particular note and think, ‘Yes! I will build a whole piece out of this astute observation! Well done, old sport!’ and other times I find the note and think, ‘What does ‘dog and kettle broke’ mean?’ Most of the time I just forget the note I have written myself as soon as I close the app.

What sort of software and hardware do you use to get your work done?

I use Google Docs so I can work anywhere on any machine. I think I only started doing this because I didn’t have Microsoft Word on my computer, but now it’s the only system I know. It’s sort of like in The Little Mermaid when Ariel is like, ‘Hello Prince Eric, first and only human man I have ever seen, I love you forever now’. That’s what happened with Google Docs and I.

I much prefer writing in the morning and I can’t really do it when there’s someone else in the same room.

Because I wrote a collection of essays, it was easy to keep track of them as singular pieces that were thematically linked, but I think this would be trickier if I was writing fiction. I’m tinkering with an idea for a novel now, so we’ll see if my G-Doc relationship continues to be fruitful as I grow and change.