The Advice and Routines of Famous Writers | Daily Rituals (Book Review) · 7:55am Feb 7th, 2018
Daily Routines
By Mason Currey
The following is the advice and routines of famous writers of both present and past. I have taken the liberty of stealing the tidbits I enjoyed the most from the book.
Please enjoy.
INSTALLMENT 2 | WRITING
THE ADVICE AND ROUTINES OF FAMOUS WRITERS | DAILY RITUALS (BOOK REVIEW)
W. H. Auden
Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.
Auden was an early riser, kept to a strict schedule for the demands of his time, and did drugs to keep himself at a decent efficiency through the course of his life. His argument was the mind is its sharpest in the morning; thus that’s the best time to write—but I would suggest writing at different times and seeing which one works best for you.
A modern stoic knows that the surest way to discipline passions is to discipline time; decide what you want or ought to do during the day then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no troubles.
Thomas Wolfe
Wolfe typically began writing around midnight, supplied with copious amounts of coffee and tea, though being six-foot-six tall, he would have difficulty finding the right chair and table for his height. Like Ernest Hemingway, he would often resort to writing standing up (how they did so, I will never know.)
Fun fact: For inspiration, Wolfe would often fondle his genitalia. Not to jerk off or get hard or anything of that matter, but rather to assist to in his idle thinking, supply him with a ‘good male’ feeling, and give him the energy to do more.
Wolfe's writing sessions tended to last six hours.
Anthony Trollope
All those I think who have lived as literary men—working daily as a literary labourer—will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write. But then, he should so have trained himself that he shall be able to work continuously during those three hours—so have tutored his mind that it shall not be necessary for him to sit nibbling his pen, and gazing at the wall before him, till he shall have found the words with which he wants to express his ideas.
This man was insane. If Trollope completed a novel before his three hours were up, he would take out a fresh sheet of paper and immediately begin the next one. He kept to a strict, morning routine, remaining consistent with it, and allowing him to produce more than forty-five novels in his lifetime.
This division of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the year, which is the precise rate readers of the world can want from the hands of one man.
Gustave Flaubert
A writer of the night, Flaubert would continuously revise his work just to get the prose right, almost to the point of obsession. Here is a quote from his work-ethic:
Sometimes I don’t understand why my arms don’t drop from my body with fatigue, why my brain doesn’t melt away. I am leading an austere life, stripped of all external pleasure, and am sustained only by a kind of permanent frenzy, which sometimes makes me weep tears of impotence but never abates. I love my work with a love that is frantic and perverted, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt that scratches his belly. Sometimes, when I am empty, when words don’t come, when I find I haven’t written a single sentence after scribbling whole pages, I collapse on my couch and lie there dazed, bogged down in a swamp of despair, hating myself and blaming myself for this demented pride that makes me pant after a chierma. A quarter of an hour later, everything ha changed; my heart is pounding with joy.
Not going to lie. Saw a bit of myself in that quote, but I won’t pretend to be nearly at the same level as Flaubert. As painful as the writing was, it was in many ways an ideal life for Flaubert.
After all, work is still the best way of escaping from life!
Ernest Hemingway
I won’t pretend to speak on the behalf on a mammoth like Hemingway. Instead, I’ll let the man speak for himself.
When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filing, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until that next day that is hard to get through.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald would steal time to write whenever he could manage in the military, though once he was caught doing so, his writing sessions shifted to the weekends. He never had a consistent schedule, as he and his wife, Zelda (yes, her name was the inspiration for The Legend of Zelda series) would stalk the streets and spend most of their time drinking or partying.
His advice for short stories is adhered to by writers such as All Art Is Quite Useless.
Stories are best written in either one jump or three, according to the length. The three-jump story should be done in three successive days, then a day or so for revise and off she goes.
Haruki Murakami
A year or so ago, I met a mentor of mine, writer, in Toronto during his world travels. We discussed a lot, from plots to philosophy, and ended with each other buying a book for the other.
The book writer gifted me was The Wind Up Chronicles, written by Murakami. That book means a lot to me, from showing me that mundane plot can be carried brilliantly by beautiful prose, as well as being signed by writer himself.
While writer didn’t peruse anything more on this Murakami, I went and bought most of his books, as well as his personal essay on writing and running, which I hope to post a blargh about sometime soon.
When Murakami is writing a novel, he wakes at four A.M. and works for five to six hours straight. In the afternoon, he runs, then does errands, reads, and listen to music; bedtime is nine P.M.
I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.
In his opinion, Murakami states that will alone is not enough to sustain the turmoil or being a writer.
Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.
The downside, of course, to having such a schedule is the lack of a social life. But, if you’re a loser like me, this isn’t a downside.
People are offended when you repeatedly turn down their invitations. My readers would welcome whatever lifestyle I chose, as long as I made sure each new work was an improvement over the last. And shouldn’t that be my duty—and my top priority—as a novelist.
Franz Kafka
The king of dark humor, Kafka time was cut short due to his obligations to work and family. He stole time late at night to write, and his philosophy on stealing time can be found in the following quote:
Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible, then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.
Stephen King
Stephen King writes every day, never leaving his desk until he’s reached his quota of two thousand words.
Here is his advice for preparing your writing routine:
Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. Your schedule—in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk—exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night, so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.
Phew! That ends that! Of course, I took liberally from Daily Routines, so please don’t credit most of what was written to. If the lives of artist interest you at all, you should really pick up the book, as even those who I did cover aren't done as extensively in the book.
I may do a second one of this, but for the time being, my bed is calling me.
But I would love to hear what your folks’ writing schedule is like! Please post in the comments below, or if you’d like some privacy, PM them to me.
Night!
~ B_25 ~
4791471
An interesting and relatable approach.
Thank you for this.
I have tried the Stephen king approach for a week or two. Keeping myself in a chedule of words rather than hours. Because most of my day is brined in work, errands and things alike.
Maybe when I get a place for myself and my sister I would find another way to enhance my schedule, and while doing so, my productivity.
Thanks for giving this kind of useful information B.
Happy writting, lad.