Daily routines of famous writers, part 2

I’m weirdly fascinated when I read about the daily routines of writers. I guess I’m curious to see if my routines are similar or different. I’m looking for the key to writing a good novel. I always come to the same conclusion: there is no magical ritual, there is no one way to write. Still, I continue to post these types of things.

These tidbits are from ShortList.com. Enjoy.

Haruki Murakami

• Wakes at 4AM and works for five to six hours straight
• In the afternoons, he runs or swims (or does both), takes care of errands, reads, and listens to music; he’s in bed by 9PM
• In his own words: “I keep this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the most important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”
• Admits he doesn’t have much of a social life

Jane Austen

• Woke up early, before the other women were up, and played piano
• Organized family breakfast, her one major household chore
• Wrote in the sitting room, often with her mother and sister sewing quietly nearby
• Hid her papers and started sewing if visitors showed up
• Ate dinner at 3 or 4 o’ clock
• Read her work-in-progress to her family in the evening

George Orwell

• Worked at a second-hand bookshop in London in the early morning, wrote in the late morning and afternoon, and went back to the shop in the evening

Victor Hugo

• Woke at dawn, drank coffee, read his morning letter from his mistress, and swallowed two raw eggs
• Enclosed himself in his lookout and wrote until 11AM
• Wrote standing at a small desk in front of a mirror

Mark Twain

• Ate a hearty breakfast and then went in his study and wrote until dinner at 5PM (he skipped lunch)
• His family knew not to bother him. If they needed him, they would blow a horn

Stephen King

• Writes every day of the year, including his birthday and holidays, and almost never lets himself quit before he reaches his daily quota of 2,000 words
• Usually finishes between 11:30AM and 1:30PM
• Spends the rest of his days napping, writing letters, reading, enjoying his family, and watching the Red Sox on TV

Simone De Beauvoir

• Daily schedule focused on her work and her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre
• Worked by herself in the morning, then joined Sartre for lunch. They worked together in silence at his apartment in the afternoon, then spent their evenings attending events, seeing movies, or drinking Scotch and listening to the radio at her apartment

Franz Kafka

• Lived with his family in a cramped apartment, where he could muster the concentration to write only late at night, when everyone else was asleep
• Usually wrote from 10:30 or 11:30PM until 1, 2, or 3 o’clock in the morning. Once he worked straight through until 6AM

Leo Tolstoy

• Worked in isolation. Nobody was allowed to enter his study, and the doors to the adjoining rooms were locked to ensure he wasn’t interrupted
• Wrote every day without fail, “not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine”

Charles Dickens

• Needed absolute quiet; at one of his houses, he installed an extra door in his study to block out noise
• Had a specific setup for his study: writing desk in front of a window and, on the desk itself, his writing materials (goose-quill pens and blue ink) laid out alongside specific ornaments: a small vase of fresh flowers, a large paper knife, a gilt leaf with a rabbit perched on it, and two bronze statuettes (one depicting a pair of fat toads dueling, the other a gentleman swarmed with puppies)

 

Source: ShortList.com