The writer George Flaubert argued an orderly daily routine is all writers need to create. He said:. For many writers particularly new ones , being regular and orderly means keeping a job. Working with numbers is anathema for most writers, but British poet T.
Elliot worked in Lloyds bank in the UK and wrote his poetry outside of work. Instead, create on the margins of the day by either getting up early or writing after work. Dedicate time to the creative process, free from email, the news, and social media.
I usually start the day with a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and write for at least thirty minutes without interruption. Successful writers sit down in front of the blank page every day , not just at the weekends or when inspiration strikes.
This 19th-century English author produced an astonishing 47 novels during his career; two dozen were published while he worked in the General Post Office. According to Mason Currey , Trollope said about writing every day:. If Trollope completed a novel during his three-hour writing session, he took out a blank sheet of paper and started writing a new one, immediately.
As with any new habit, start small. If you falter, set the alarm on your phone to remind yourself about your writing schedule. Consistency is key if you want to become a better writer. Do this until you create a writing routine that sticks. I also recommend tracking your word-count during these sessions so you can evaluate your progress. Prolific writers know how important it is to get going quickly and efficiently.
The American novelist Henry Miller was also a big believer in stopping before he ran out of ideas. I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have still things to say. Buy a packet of index cards or Post-It notes. Now, stick this on your writing desk.. This writing habit will also help you overcome writer's block as you'll have a visual reminder about where to start. 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 you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, 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 the next day that is hard to get through.
I work in the morning at a manual typewriter. I do about four hours and then go running. This helps me shake off one world and enter another.
Then I work again, later afternoon, for two or three hours. No snack food or coffee. No cigarettes — I stopped smoking a long time ago. The space is clear, the house is quiet. A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.
Looking out the window, reading random entries in the dictionary. Productivity maniac Benjamin Franklin had a formidably rigorous daily routine:. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for m or do both , then I read a bit and listen to some music.
I go to bed at pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. William Gibson tells the Paris Review in I check my e-mail and do Internet ablutions, as we do these days. I have a cup of coffee. Three days a week, I go to Pilates and am back by ten or eleven. Then I sit down and try to write. But, generally, just sitting down and really trying is enough to get it started. I break for lunch, come back, and do it some more. And then, usually, a nap.
Naps are essential to my process. Not dreams, but that state adjacent to sleep, the mind on waking. As I move through the book it becomes more demanding.
At the beginning, I have a five-day workweek, and each day is roughly ten to five, with a break for lunch and a nap. What it needs is simply to write all the time. Downtime other than simply sleeping becomes problematic. Maya Angelou shares her day with Paris Review in I write in the morning and then go home about midday and take a shower, because writing, as you know, is very hard work, so you have to do a double ablution.
I play sane — Good morning! I had to write either in between those hours, hurriedly, or spend a lot of weekend and predawn time. You can read the full interview here. The Illustrated Man. Green Shadows, White Whale. So I never have to worry about schedules. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this. I wrote in bedrooms and living rooms when I was growing up with my parents and my brother in a small house in Los Angeles.
I worked on my typewriter in the living room, with the radio and my mother and dad and brother all talking at the same time. Later on, when I wanted to write Fahrenheit , I went up to UCLA and found a basement typing room where, if you inserted ten cents into the typewriter, you could buy thirty minutes of typing time.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Chartreuse, cocaine, grass, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, grapefruit, Dunhills, orange juice, gin, continuous pornographic movies.
I do about four hours and then go running. This helps me shake off one world and enter another. Then I work again, later afternoon, for two or three hours. No snack food or coffee. No cigarettes — I stopped smoking a long time ago. The space is clear, the house is quiet. Looking out the window, reading random entries in the dictionary. Pet Sematary. Is there a certain side you sleep on? I mean I brush my teeth, I wash my hands.
Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. The Lincoln Lawyer. I can write in my office, I can write on planes, I can write in cars. I was on a plane last night for five hours, squeezed in so tight, my elbows were pushing into my ribs, but I wrote the whole time and got a lot done. I go to bed at pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation.
I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. What they have worked out is this: I awake at , work until , eat breakfast at home, work until , walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at , read the mail, eat lunch at noon.
In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare. There are loads of bars, though. I always have a pad on my bedside, in case I want to write straight away. I also have a habit at night of leaving a sentence unfinished, so I can pick up on it the next morning. If the mood is upon me, I tend to write nonstop.
I then usually go for a walk. My father opened the store at 6 A. He closed it at 1 A. M…I must have liked the long hours…I have kept the candy-store hours all my life.
I wake at five in the morning. I get to work as early as I can. I work as long as I can. I do this every day of the week, including holidays.
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