FUNNY WOMEN #157: Habits of Less Successful Writers
So much can be learned from the writing habits of successful writers, but what can we learn from the ones who aren’t doing quite as well?
...more
Posts Tagged: writing habits
The Daily Struggle
Lord knows the world has changed since I wrote this talk, but when the world falls to pieces around us, especially when the world falls to pieces, writers will still sit down to write. As Beckett tells us, even when we have “no power to express” and “no desire to express,” we still have “the obligation […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Maryse Meijer
Maryse Meijer discusses her debut collection Heartbreaker, the importance of tension in writing, revision as a shield against criticism, and life as a twin.
...moreNotes on Craft
Supposedly, the most-common question for a writer is , “Where do you get your ideas?” but in my experience, it is actually, “Do you outline?” I don’t outline, but I do fill notebooks with scribbled thoughts about where the story is and where it should be, and over the years I’ve realized that these pages […]
...moreAre You a Cook or a Baker?
Do you enjoy the culinary results of tossing ingredients together with some heat to create some spontaneous deliciousness? Or do you prefer the structured act of measuring and timing that create cookies and cakes? The methodological divide between cooking and baking is not so different between different types of writing: writers who write spontaneously versus […]
...moreCreation, Not Comfort
At The Millions, Connor Ferguson muses on writing routines, the tortured artist trope, and the role discomfort plays in the create process: Even if they aren’t trying to be explicitly didactic, most writers feel compelled to create stories, novels, plays, and essays as a way to address discord or imbalance that they perceive in the […]
...moreA Window to the World
Over at the New York Times Magazine, book critic and author Sam Anderson makes a compelling case for staring out windows: Windows are, in this sense, a powerful existential tool: a patch of the world, arbitrarily framed, from which we are physically isolated. The only thing you can do is look. You have no influence over […]
...moreAuthor in the First Person
There’s humor and advice on the long haul of novel-writing in an interview with Porochista Khakpour over at Prairie Schooner. Khakpour describes “problem-solving a chunk at a time,” and pushing through a “stalling chapter” to get from drafting to publishing.
...moreLike Thoreau, But Not
Writers for generation have sought out the solitude of the wilderness to get their work done. But sometimes it’s not as romantic as we hope.
...moreMary Gaitskill Procrastinates Too
For The Millions, Chelsea Voulgares talks to Mary Gaitskill about her new novel The Mare and how to establish productive writing habits: I’m not consistent like some people seem to be. Sometimes I don’t write at all. If I’m not really working on anything, I might go for quite a while without writing. I’ve never kept a record […]
...moreTitle Written Later
Over at the London Review of Books, Robert Hanks meditates on procrastination: Procrastination is the main way I express anxiety and depression, if I can use these medicalised, dignifying terms. It’s franker to say that I put things off because much of the time I’m frightened and sad (too frightened and sad for procrastination to […]
...moreThe Perfect Pen(cil)
Over at Lit Hub, Michele Filgate polled a wide range of writers (from Margaret Atwood to Maggie Nelson to Bhanu Kapil) about their favorite writing instruments, asking them to talk about the nostalgia attached to them and the sensations of that perfect pen(cil) in their hands.
...moreNightwalking with Dickens
Long walks are among the most common creative practices, we’re told, for writers from a certain era: Wordsworth, Thoreau, and Blake come quickly to mind. Matthew Beaumont’s new Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London from Verso is a treasure trove of stories about these ambulating authors, and Flavorwire has a piece about how walking after […]
...moreNo Offense, But…
Ultimately, a writer needs to shed self-restraint and be at least slightly anti-social to succeed, and hope those they know are understanding. At the New Statesman, Oliver Farry delves into the wide variety of ways to offend people through writing, from vengefully crafting real people into unflattering characters to accidentally causing your mom to worry […]
...moreBetween Drafts
The cycle of writing, editing, and publishing often leads to down time between drafts. Over at Beyond the Margins, Marlene Adelstein talks about not writing during the down time between submitting a finished manuscript and waiting to hear back from agents and editors: This non-writing time made me feel edgy and unproductive. But I was determined […]
...moreRotating Writing 90 Degrees
At my desk next morning I held my pen and hunched my shoulders and leaned my head down, physically trying to look more deeply into the page of the notebook. I did this for only a moment before writing, as a batter takes practice swings while he waits in the on-deck circle. In that moment […]
...moreTable Talk
At The Believer Logger, 14 writers sat down with Elisa Gabbert to talk reading, writing, reading without writing, writing in the midst of reading, willfully neglecting both, dutifully submitting to one or the other, and their relationships with the two.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Dani Shapiro
Author Dani Shapiro talks about her latest book, Still Writing, MFA vs. NYC vs. life in bucolic CT, and the lure of Internet.
...moreSo, You Want to Be a Great Writer?
Well, then. If you want to be a great writer, here is what you have to do. Some walked to get away from work, to clear the mind of words and embrace direct experience; others, to ruminate on their scribbled pages and return to the pen with renewed vigor. Wallace Stevens actually wrote while walking, […]
...moreNot Writing to Write Better
Julia Fierro has a debut novel Cutting Teeth, but for much of the last decade, the writer was so dispirited by the rejection of her first manuscript that she stopped writing. Instead, she launched Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, a Brooklyn-based writing institution that has helped introduce a generation of successful novelists. Only after years of teaching […]
...moreRotten Apples and Other Writerly Customs
Nearly any creative writing course, teacher, or mentor will give you the same advice—writing is a solitary act and is different for every writer. However, some of us writers are a bit more different than others. Brain Pickings shows us the wacky habits of many esteemed writers. We especially enjoy this anecdote about Friedrich Schiller: […]
...more“Super Sad True Habits”
At Tin House, Rumpus contributor Courtney Maum introduces us to the writing habits of “highly effective writers.” Part-one features many people we love, including Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay and columnist Steve Almond.
...more