This month I’ve been struggling to find the time to write something every day for my novel. I tried to make turning up at the page an essential part of my daily routine ever since listing to Neil Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art’ speech. But I work as a marketing manager for a busy publisher, and squeezing in moments with my latest novel chapter around sales conferences, book launches, author catch-ups (and a social life!) has proved a challenge.
This got me thinking about the writing habits of successful novelists. Is working on a novel daily really the way to go? What are the popular practices of those who pen bestsellers? How can we learn from other leading authors? Here are just a few of the routines and curious customs I’ve unearthed…
- Haruki Murakami gets up at 4am, writes for five or six hours, then goes for a run in the afternoon. He keeps to this routine every day without variation.
- Ernest Hemmingway woke each morning with the sunrise and wrote solidly until noon. Then presumably he headed to a bar or found time for some hell-raising…
- Bestseller Jodi Picoult has a slightly more flexible approach. Even if she can’t write a good page every day, she tries to edit a bad one
At the more eccentric end, Brain Pickings tells me that Virginia Woolf only wrote standing up in her twenties, Truman Capote wouldn’t begin or end a piece of work on Friday, and Victor Hugo locked away his clothes so he couldn’t leave the house until he was done. Not sure I’ll be trying that one in a hurry…
I’ve decided I’ll still aim to write something every day, but time away from the page every once in a while shouldn’t make or break the chances of producing a bestseller! Perhaps it’s even a good thing to come back refreshed. What matters is doing what works for you to get the words on the page. Kafka managed to write around 12 hour shifts, so there’s no excuse for me.
What are your writing habits and routines? Does anything in particular work well for you? Let me know in the comments below!
Cover Girl 