I’m renting a castle to write my next book

Last year I rented a castle for Nanowrimo.

It was actually a chateau in France, but still… pretty amazing. We drank port and explored medieval cities and basked in the inspiration that emits from story-rich historical buildings. We wrote a lot, and even had some fun.

So this year I’m going to do it again.

I’m a bit torn between these two castles.

 

One’s in Spain, one is in Austria… I’ll probably rent them both sometime, but will probably choose Spain for this November.

Why castles?

It sounds incredible, almost luxuriant – but no, I’m not making millions with my fiction. Castles are usually out in the middle of nowhere and hard to maintain, and they don’t attract their own tourism. So there are actually a bunch of them on AirBNB and they’re very reasonable.

Right now I’m trying to find an apartment in Lisbon, I can’t find anything good for under $3000. These two castles cost twice that (about $7,000) but they have space for more people. Split 5 ways and living in a castle for a month usually costs less than living in a major city.

What will I be working on?

I’m trying to finish Orpheum this August and possibly finish Selfie and/or Taste in September. After that, in the castle, I *hope* to finish book three of Scarlet Thread, and book two of Shearwater. Since I’m running the retreat, I may actually not get as much writing done as I’d like. But I’ll be happy if I can finish three or four new books in the next six months (that’s actually a LOT!).

Why Nanowrimo?

National novel writing month is a time when writers come together and write together – the social goal of reaching 50K is inspiring and motivating, and I try to participate. I even wrote a Defense of Nanowrimo and got a tattoo about it.

I love writing, but the struggle of motivating yourself to sit down and do the work is a constant challenge; doing events and activities with other writers and committing to a Grand Gesture can really boost productivity.

For more details about the castle (and an opportunity to join) check out my main site, www.creativindie.com.