The way I work has changed a lot over the years, mostly due to necessity. Back when I was still working as a photographer, I would work a lot in the car on the way to shoots. Now, thankfully, I write full time.

Although, that can have its down sides. These usually manifest themselves by way of back pain, neck pain, wrist pain, and elbow pain.

Or, industrial injuries, if you prefer.

There’s no doubt about it, the human body was not intended to spend nine-tenths of its time hunched over a computer keyboard, which is usually the lot of the author. So, I now take a little more care over my work environment than I used to.

When I first moved to the wilds of Derbyshire, about six years ago, I burrowed away in a corner of a room with an old kitchen table as my desk, and a smaller round table to the side for the printer. It wasn’t ideal.

The table was not wide enough for me to be able to sit far enough from the computer screen, nor did it allow me to sit at quite the right height because of the frame underneath the tabletop. My usual computer setup when at home was to plug my MacBook Air into an additional 21-inch monitor, ergonomic split keyboard, and separate mouse. I find it so useful to be able to have research material open on one screen while I write on another.

The only option was to get a proper frame to support a custom-made desktop. In this case, I bought an 8×4-foot sheet of one-inch plywood and cut a slightly strange desktop shape to suit the space available. That meant navigating around a pillar, the side of a roll-top desk, and a radiator. I then covered the surface with dark green vinyl, of the kind you used to see on the desktops of bank managers. To make the front edge more substantial, I attached a secondary length of plywood—it’s called bulldogging, but don’t ask me why—and then finished it off with a bit of trim.

The desktop rests on an IKEA Bekant frame, which is height adjustable. I debated on getting a sit/stand frame, but to make the most of the space available, it wasn’t really practical to have it going up and down. I use a proper office swivel chair, with decent back support, and have the desk and chair heights set so I can rest my elbows on the desktop while I’m working. This avoids most of the neck problems caused by constant typing. (Note I said “most” there, not “all”!)

My old MacBook Air has now been joined by a 21-inch iMac, with a 23-inch secondary monitor, and the original mouse replaced by an upright one. Because you operate this with your hand thumb-uppermost, it tends to cause less wear-and-tear on your tendons. The run straight from elbow to hand, rather than twisted, as they would be to operate a standard mouse. Even so, I found that a lot of mouse work—caused by overuse of photo manipulation software while cover designing—played havoc with my right elbow joint. The padded arm-rest now clamped to the desktop was my solution. So far, it’s proved very effective.

Of course, having built myself the mother of all work spaces, that doesn’t mean I always actually work there…

Before the pandemic lockdown hit, I was travelling a fair bit. Then, my laptop was still my main writing tool. I’ve written bits of book sitting next to an utterly still lake in Finnish Karelia, almost on the border with Russia. Or sat with my trusty MacBook Air and a cup of caffé latte under an awning in the south of France.

If carrying a laptop is not sensible—as it wasn’t when going ashore in an inflatable dinghy while sailing in the Ionian Islands of Greece—then I always have a notebook with me. I’ve spent many a happy hour sitting in the sunshine outside a little tavern, making notes, usually in the company of a cat. I call this method of working using my iBrain or necktop computer.

The muse, after all, waits for no woman. You have to grab inspiration when and where you can.

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Zoë Sharp spent most of her formative years living aboard a catamaran on the northwest coast of England. She opted out of mainstream education at the age of twelve, and wrote her first novel at fifteen. She began her long-running series featuring no-nonsense ex-Special Forces trainee turned bodyguard heroine, Charlie Fox, after receiving death-threats in the course of her work as a photojournalist. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards, been used in a Danish school text book, inspired an original song and music video, and been optioned for TV and film. When not working on her novels or short stories, Zoë can be found improvising weapons out of everyday objects, renovating houses, or international pet-sitting. Her latest book is the first in a new series, THE LAST TIME SHE DIED, out October 20 2021 from Bookouture.