I laughed out loud, like a lot of writers probably did this week, when I read J. Robert Lennon’s confession in the L.A. Times, The Truth About Writers. The truth, it turns out is that “writers don’t spend much time writing.”
And who can blame them? What with day-jobs, family obligations, weekend plans, sicknesses, hangovers, pets, daydreaming, lust, love and, perhaps most insidiously The Internet! to distract them, there’s precious few opportunities to seize a couple hours a day of free, solitary, uninterrupted writing time. The trick apparently is to establish a routine that remains constant despite all the hour-by-hour bombardments of reality, responsibility and, Sartre’s definition of Hell, other people.
Which got me to thinking about my own writing habits as well as the habits of actually established writers.
Daily Routines is one of the best sources for this information.
I especially like the description of one of my favorite contemporary writers J.M. Coetzee:
“Coetzee is a man. . .of almost monkish self-discipline. He does not drink, smoke, or eat meat. He cycles vast distances to keep fit and spends at least an hour at his writing-desk each morning, seven days a week. A colleague who has worked with him for more than a decade claims to have seen him laugh just once. An acquantance has attended several dinner parties where Coetzee has uttered not a single word.”
And today, I found via Red Room another interesting routine-related round-up of writers, artists, and other obsessive types, which led me to an amazing photo set documenting Will Self’s writing study. Which reminded me, in its chaotic beauty of the painter Francis Bacon’s studio.
What are your habits, rituals, routines? What does your study look like? (This last question doesn’t apply if you live in San Francisco and you probably don’t have a study and spend your days writing in your bedroom or at a coffeeshop.)
