Does It Matter Where Authors Write?

 

Books have been written everywhere – from prison cells and concentration camps to trains and libraries – but a new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape The Books We Love, focuses on the settings we envision our authors penning their books in.  

Studies, garden rooms, kitchen tables, and boarding houses make up some of the places featured in the book. We learn of where Ernest Hemingway drew his inspiration, as well as where James Baldwin, Ray Bradbury, Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and Virginia Woolf spent their time crafting books that have been read by generations.  

Does the room a writer works out of really matter? Would Shakespeare not be able to write if he had to relocate elsewhere? I think not. But we can’t discount the fact that writers may find inspiration, comfort, and convenience from the places they chose to write in.  

Today’s writer is a nomad. They may have a favorite space at home. I have a man cave. But due to laptops, cell phones, and of course paper pads being mobile writing instruments, writers tend to construct their books anywhere and write wherever they are.  

I have written on planes, in bathrooms, restaurants, hotel lounges, bookstores, cafes, libraries, and wherever there is a table or desk, often around other people. Writing is a solo artform, but I crave practicing it when surrounded by life. Writers are nomads.  

Some need to write in solitude and choose to write late into the night or pre-dawn, before anyone can interrupt with conversations, a need, or a want.  

The growth of literary tourism sent bibliophiles visiting the birthplace or homes of famous writers. On display are well-preserved but likely renovated depictions of where a writer spent some of his or her time creating a work of genius. But writers live internally, so anything external that we see may or may not have had any impact on the writer.  

Perhaps in addition to setting, location, and the environment, an author writes in, another key factor would be the circumstances of the writer’s life at the time he or she wrote something. Were they going through divorce, addiction, poverty, loss, war, family trauma, health issues, or anything that could transform one’s life? Were they of sound mind and body? Were they depressed, in love, or injured? Who we are – not just where we are – influence what, or even if, we write.  

I will leave you with this excerpt from Katie Da Cunha Lewin’s book: 

 

“We might imagine that writing happens only in a given location, at a certain time, and in a certain pose, but writing, in its most instinctual and basic feeling, is happening always. It percolates inside us, weaving its way towards us in the day, snaking its way up as we read, or look, or simply live. We hope to trap it in the writer's room, but writing is not like an animal that can be caught and contained: it is more diffuse and changeable than that. We need not champion the genius, with all the baggage that entails, but the skill, craft and labor of the writer: we need to assert that writing is worthwhile enough to be valued and protected, wherever it takes place.”

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Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 9,800,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum