Brit Writers speaks with Niki Schafer, author of Creating Space

Who is Niki Schafer and what inspired you to write Creating Space?

I see myself as a bit of a juggler – typical woman really – I’ve got plates spinning everywhere and I’m always running around trying to keep them up. By profession I’m an interior designer and I create homes (note I didn’t say interiors) for families. I create spaces that feel like home. I’m also a writer – I write articles, books, blogs and a selection of thoughts in 140 characters. I’m a ‘lifestyle coach’ which is spectacularly vague but that suits me. It means I stand up and speak about home-life and designing your family life the way you want it to be. And most importantly I’m a mum and a wife. I have two incredibly opinionated (where did they get that from?) redhead daughters and a son who has a mean left foot and is pretty impressive on the pitch for a seven year old.

Creating Space came out of my own life story – of juggling all the responsibilities that we women juggle. In truth I got a bit of a shock when I found myself ‘home alone’ with a young baby and no adult conversation to keep me sane. I dabbled with a touch of insanity in the early years but didn’t enjoy it terribly much and writing became my saviour. I’d already written a book but I wanted to write something that would help other women (even just for my daughters when they become mums themselves) and so I merged my personal development world with my interior design training and Creating Space was born.

 Please tell us more about Creating Space and who have you written this book for?

“Creating Space – how to design your calm, sane, outrageously gorgeous home and family-life” is a step-by-step guide for women who want to make the most of their homes. When you’re juggling your work, your home-life, your relationships and the odd trip to A&E, the house is frequently too much to think about. In all likelihood any sense of control has been relinquished to the youngest member – or the dog – and when it comes to style, the house looks more sandwich spread than it does magazine spread. These women (you and me) don’t want it to always be like that. We want to regain a sense of ownership in our homes, we want to rediscover our identities (probably stuck in the dishwasher filter), our style and our ability to be efficient and organised (as we were at work, once upon a time). But we need a guiding hand to help us.

Creating Space is a journey through the seven spaces of your house. As you progress you establish the foundations of your home – personal style, family thinking and house rules. Ultimately these foundations support you to create a home that not only looks beautiful, it feels beautiful too. The book is a mix of interior design techniques and happiness tools that will help you design a home and more importantly, a family-life that is calm, sane and outrageously gorgeous.

Tell us about your journey to publication.

If I tell you how I started writing, you’ll think me a little crazy but here goes. I was travelling through India about 14 years ago and, as is the way over there, people kept reading my palm (really you have little choice in the matter). The strange thing however, was that every single time I was told I would be a writer. I ended my travels and took the palm readers at their word and started a book. It took me over a year to write, and another year to find a publisher and then half way through the editing process the publisher went bust. I started on the hunt again but my heart just wasn’t in it.

Ten years later, the desire to write a book took its hold on me again and I wrote Creating Space. I was fortunate to hear about the Brit Writers Awards from Lynne Copp who won the non-fiction award in 2011 with her fabulous book Dancing ‘Round the Handbags and she recommended that I submit my book for the 2012 Brit Writers Awards. I saw that there was an assessment centre who would give me feedback on my book and to be honest was more interested in the assessment than I was in believing that my book would be short-listed for the award.

Please tell us more about your work with schools and why did you decide to become a Schools Territory Partner?

As an interior designer, one of my first jobs was to build a small pre-school in Henley-on-Thames. I was heavily pregnant at the time but I knew the school needed some professional guidance so volunteered to design and project-manage the school build. It took two years in the end but taught me far more than any training could have done and I now have the privilege of seeing the kids running in and out of it every day. I was also a governor at the school for a short time – I’m not much of a politician so didn’t stay long – and I learnt to appreciate how little funding schools are really given and how much outside support is seriously appreciated.

I want to contribute to the school community in my own way and becoming a Schools Territory Partner is a perfect way for me to give my support to schools today and the creative writers of tomorrow.

How important are initiatives such as Brit Writers and how did you feel about being a finalist at the 2012 awards?

To be honest I was staggered to be a finalist in the 2012 awards. What an honour. Honestly, I absolutely loved the sensation of someone else appreciating the effort I have put into my writing and my thinking. It had taken courage to write it down and I was thrilled to be recognised. I am really thankful to the Brit Writers Award on so many levels. I think the award initiative itself is a phenomenal idea – a competition seriously encourages people to ‘do it’ not just ‘talk about it’. The submission deadlines is something we writers respect! I also really admire the diversity of work the Brit Writers are involved with. The awards evening itself was absolutely fascinating – everyone was so different from one another, yet we all had one thing in common – writing.

What advice would you give to new and unpublished writers of non-fiction?

Firstly, it’s important to recognise that you are needed. There is huge demand for non-fiction at the moment. We live in the age of information and people crave new knowledge in every subject. However, there is an abundance of poorly-written fluff or sales-driven hype. Instead we require writers who research well, who assimilate data and who present back to their target audience in a style that can be easily absorbed. We need good non-fiction writers to help people solve their day-to-day problems. We need non-fiction writers to engage, to educate and to entertain us.

My advice is to write every day. Be in the habit of writing, even if it’s a journal. Create a time of day when you can write, create a space in your home or even your car where you want to write. Establish a pattern for writing so that it becomes something you can do easily and instinctively. But mostly enjoy it. Fill your writing with passion and purpose and be proud of what you want to achieve. The more you write the better you will become, the more you think about writing, the more you will do it. The more you think about getting published the more likely it will be. Indulge in the world of writing, hang around with other writers, read about writing. As they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it.

What else would you like to say to anyone reading this right now?

Let’s stay in touch. Let’s support one another in our work. I’d love to know about your writing, about your struggles and your celebrations. We can learn from each other. Writing communities are powerful – in truth, all communities are powerful – but we have the words and the ability to share stories that can make our communities last more than a life time. Good luck to you all!

Visit – http://dwell-being.co.uk

Follow Niki on Twitter – https://twitter.com/NikiSchafer

Thank you Niki