This week: Routines and Habits Edited by: Lilli 🧿 ☕  
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“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”
~ Agatha Christie
"Just get it down on paper, and then we’ll see what to do with it.”
~ Maxwell Perkins
“Writing is like driving at night. You can see only as far as the headlights,
but you can make the whole trip that way.”
~ E.L. Doctorow
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
~ Groucho Marx |
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Have you heard of the "21/90 rule" in psychology?
Basically, it states that it takes 21 days to form a new habit and 90 days to make it a part of our lifestyle. After you complete the 90 days, the habit will be as much a part of your daily lifestyle as brushing your teeth.
Our lives can sometimes be hectic, so we have to give proper thought to creating good, productive, healthy habits. I think we can use the same guidelines to create a habit of writing.
This week let's take a look at the writing habits of some authors you may be familiar with.
 Maya Angelou
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
In a 2013 interview with The Daily Beast, the American author and poet discussed her writing career and her daily work habits…
I keep a hotel room in my hometown and pay for it by the month.
I go around 6:30 in the morning. Then go home about midday and take a shower, because writing, as you know, is very hard work, so you have to do a double ablution. Then I go out and shop — I’m a serious cook — and pretend to be normal. I play sane — Good morning! Fine, thank you. And you? And I go home. I prepare dinner for myself and if I have houseguests, I do the candles and the pretty music and all that. Then after all the dishes are moved away I read what I wrote that morning. And more often than not if I’ve done nine pages I may be able to save two and a half or three. That’s the cruelest time you know, to really admit that it doesn’t work. And to blue pencil it. When I finish maybe fifty pages and read them — fifty acceptable pages — it’s not too bad.
E.B. White
“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”
In an interview with The Paris Review, E.B. White, the famous author of Charlotte’s Web, talked about his daily writing routine…
I never listen to music when I’m working. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all. On the other hand, I’m able to work fairly well among ordinary distractions. My house has a living room that is at the core of everything that goes on: it is a passageway to the cellar, to the kitchen, to the closet where the phone lives. There’s a lot of traffic. But it’s a bright, cheerful room, and I often use it as a room to write in, despite the carnival that is going on all around me.
In consequence, the members of my household never pay the slightest attention to my being a writing man — they make all the noise and fuss they want to. If I get sick of it, I have places I can go. A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
Haruki Murakami:
“The repetition itself becomes the important thing.”
In a 2004 interview, Murakami discussed his physical and mental habits…
When I’m in writing mode for a novel, 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 (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m.
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.
But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.
Ernest Hemingway:
“I write every morning.”
In an interview with George Plimpton, Hemingway revealed his daily routine…
When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there.
You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that.
When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.
Ok, these are some great ideas, tips, and interesting habits. But, how can this help us? Here are a couple of ideas to help you apply these to your own writing life:
 Pushing yourself physically prepares you to work hard mentally.
Vonnegut does pushups as a break from writing. Murakami runs 10 kilometers each day. A.J. Jacobs types while walking on a treadmill. You can decide what works for you, but make sure you get out and move.
Do the most important thing first.
I noticed that most accomplished writers start writing in the morning. They work on their goals before the rest of the day gets out of control. They aren’t wondering when they’re going to write and they aren’t battling to “fit it in” amongst their daily activities because they are doing the most important thing first. Perhaps writing isn't 'the most important' thing in your life, but what I take away from this is the necessity to set an appointment with myself to write.
Embrace the struggle and do hard work.
Many writers mention their struggle to write. Khaled Housseni has said that his first drafts are “difficult”, “laborious”, and “disappointing.” Barbara Kingsolver throws out a hundred pages before she gets to the first page of a book. Coincidentally, she is a Pulitzer Prize nominee, has written over a dozen books, and the last nine have all made the New York Times bestseller list.
What looks like failure in the beginning is often the foundation of success. You have to grind out the hard work before you can enjoy your best work. Never give up!
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Comments received from my last Drama Newsletter, "Finding Our True Self" .:
Turkey DrumStik  wrote:
People won’t remember you by the career you have.
I am inclined to disagree. I have seen in my own family how someone's career has impacted how others feel about them. For example, my aunt was an English professor. I have seen many of her former students state on social media how her lessons made them feel great about reading and exploring works they might not have read on their own. Likewise, at my mom's memorial service, I spoke with some of her former lawn maintenance customers. They told me stories of how my mom helped them with things beyond cutting their grass, but cutting their grass is how she met them in the first place. My grandmother had similar experiences in her clerical work with the Division of Youth and Family Services in the 70s.
When I see and hear these sorts of statements, I realize that careers can make a difference in who you meet, and people will remember the actual work they did. The quality of that work impacts how people feel about you and whether or not they want to get to know you better. Seeing this in action throughout my life has made me career-conscious for sure. It's a bit different in IT, but I do think IT has given me skill sets that make people at least respect what I do both in the office and out.
Thank you for sharing. I agree that teachers have a unique opportunity to affect their students and your remarks are a wonderful example.
Beholden  wrote:
Thank you for including my essay, Prophecy, among the Editor's Picks section. |
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Drama: September 06, 2023 Issue [#12156]
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