writing habits

  • Nightwalking 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…

  • No 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,…

  • Between 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…

  • Rotating 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…

  • Table 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.

  • The Rumpus Interview with Dani Shapiro

    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.

  • So, 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…

  • Not 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…

  • Rotten 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…

  • “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.