Habits of Great Novelists

Novelists are that group of people who do their work in seclusion and secretly apply themselves to their craft. We may assume that great novelists work in flashes of inspiration – feverishly penning down the latest message received from the muse – and repeat the cycle when and if a spontaneous burst of creativity occurs again. 

This is far from the truth. 

Great writers have all learned a unique disciplined routine and a habitual approach to their work– and they stick to it. Here’s a snapshot of the habits of great writers from past to present.

Stephen King is one of the most prolific novelists today and in his book On Writing he says that he writes ten pages per day, every day. King became discouraged while writing his first book and wanted to abandon his work.  Only at the urging of his wife did he complete it and submit it to publishers. The book was Carrie. It was his first bestseller.

Ernest Hemingway said “I write every morning as soon as possible after first light”. He wrote 500 words a day. Hemingway woke early to write to avoid the heat and to write in peace and quiet. To create momentum in his work from day to day he always stopped “when you know what is going to happen next, so you can go on from there”.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote such works such as Lolita and Ada. He worked standing up and wrote all on index cards which allowed him to write scenes non-sequentially, as he could then later arrange the cards and events on his novel as he wished. His novel Ada took more than 2000 cards. Nabokov once said: “A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.”

Truman Capote claims he was a “completely horizontal author”. He wrote lying down in bed or on the couch, always with coffee which he would switch to sherry and martinis as the day wore on. He wrote his first and second drafts in longhand, in pencil. And even his third draft, done on a typewriter, would be done in bed — with the typewriter balanced on his knees.

Philip Roth also works standing up, pacing around as he thinks and conceives. Roth claimed that he walks half a mile for every page that he writes. He separates his work life from personal life, and doesn’t write where he lives — he has a studio built away from his house. He works at a lectern that doesn’t face the view of his studio window, to avoid distraction.

James Joyce was a perfectionist and certainly one of the most eminent writers of the last century. While others set themselves a daily word or page target, Joyce prided himself in taking his time with each sentence – honing it to his total satisfaction. A friend asking Joyce in the street if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

Joyce Carol Oates writes in longhand, and while she doesn’t have a formal schedule, she says she prefers to write in the morning, before breakfast. She’s a creative writing professor, and on the days she teaches, she says she writes for an about an hour before leaving for her first class. On other days, when the writing is going well, she can work for hours on end without a break — and has breakfast at 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

Anthony Trollope was one of the most prodigious novelists of his time. Only in his thirties did he start to write and his first attempts were met with meagre acclaim. He worked in the post office and never retired to full-time writing. Trollope would get up every morning at four-thirty, read his previous work for half an hour, write for two hours setting himself word quantity targets, have breakfast and set off for the post office to start at eight. He worked this way every morning and produced a new novel every year.

Haruk Marukami said this about his writing habits: “I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters, then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. “

Jodi Picoult’s last seven books all hit the top on the New York Times bestseller list. She famously said: “I don’t believe in writer’s block. Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands. If you have limited time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page”.

Barbara Kingsolver became a novelist the day she had her first child and she learned to juggle raising children and writing novels. She wakes wake up at four in the morning with “sentences pouring into my head. I write a lot of material that I know I’ll throw away. It’s just part of the process. I have to write a hundred pages before I get to page one”.

Khaled Housseni says “You have to write whether you feel like it or not. I don’t outline and like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way. For this reason I find that writing a first draft is very difficult and laborious. I love to rewrite however and writing for me is largely about rewriting. It is during this process that I discover hidden meanings, connections and possibilities that I missed the first time around.”

These routines of novelists work for writing, but their lessons can be applied other goals you hope to achieve:

• Important things first. Most writers attend to their craft first thing in the morning before the day's events take over. They don’t “battle to set time aside”. They simply do it. Every day.
• Embrace the hard work. Many first drafts are difficult, laborious and disappointing but you need to do something in order to improve thereon. What may initially look like failure are in fact the building blocks of later success.
• Establish a discipline. These exceptional novelists work regularly, whether they feel like it or not. Most work every day. Find the time, make it a habit, keep to the discipline, and strive towards the final result.

Sources:

James Clear: Daily Routines of Famous Writers. www.jamesclear.com

Leo Babauta: Learning from the Greats. www.writetodone.com