Famous Writing Routines

Famous Writing Routines

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The Myth of the Perfect Writing Routine
We profiled the routines of nearly 100 writers. We looked at the early risers, the night owls, and the ones who write on their commute.
 • Hao Nguyen
Robert Harris’ Writing Routine
“I don’t have any hobbies—a terrible thing to admit. So what would I do otherwise? Gardening? Golf? What an appalling idea. It’s this or nothing.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Hernan Diaz’s Writing Routine
“Writing is pure pleasure… even if it’s excruciating and difficult, and I feel that I’ve lost it.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Andrew Sean Greer’s Writing Routine
“I don’t have any particular routine except to try to get those pages out of the way before the sun sets. Once those pages are done, I’m allowed to do…
 • Hao Nguyen
Russell Banks’ Writing Routine
“When you write fiction, you enter another world. It’s a little bit like hallucinating or out-of-body travel.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Jayne Anne Phillips’ Writing Routine
“I feel as though I have a book in mind all the time, from the moment I start it. Even if there are periods of time I’m unable to write.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Matt Haig’s Writing Routine
“I go months without being able to write anything. Then, when I get an idea, I could be writing 5,000 words a day.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Sayaka Murata’s Writing Routine
The routine is strict: same cafés, same hours, same meals. She works longhand or with printed galley proofs, editing by hand with a pen.
 • Hao Nguyen
Percival Everett’s Writing Routine
"They might not be good pages, but you can work on bad pages. You can’t work on no pages.”
 • Hao Nguyen
John Irving’s Writing Routine
"I have nothing against my laptop, but it’s too fast, too easy. Writing by hand is more like drawing."
 • Hao Nguyen
Orhan Pamuk’s Writing Routine
“You write in a poetic mood. The next morning, you edit like an engineer.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Jeffrey Eugenides’ Writing Routine
"It’s a long and slow haul, and there’s nothing about the process that is particularly interesting.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Larry McMurtry’s Writing Routine
“I will stop in the middle of a sentence in order to avoid exceeding my page limit."
 • Hao Nguyen
Elizabeth Strout’s Writing Routine
“I write first thing in the morning after having breakfast with my husband,” she told The Guardian. “Then I clear the table and sit down to work.”
 • Hao Nguyen
Famous Writing Routines
Famous Writing Routines
Inside the daily writing routines of great authors—from Margaret Atwood to Zadie Smith.
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Famous Writing Routines

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