The most productive writers I’ve known develop skills and techniques that carry them through episodes of writer’s block, procrastination, and loss of focus. Writing is an art, a craft and a discipline. It takes a lot of energy and creativity to work all alone for the most part, to overcome bumps in the road and keep getting to the bottom of another page.
Take a look at some of the writing habits of Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins and other notable authors, and see if any of these might also work for you.
1. Take notes ~ Norman Mailer always carried a little notebook. I’d see him at parties or on the streets of Manhattan or Provincetown muttering to himself, reading something, talking earnestly to someone and he’d whip out a very small spiral bound notebook and write something down. If you want to follow in Mailer’s footsteps, why not consider getting office supplies? At least this way, you’ll be prepared for anything and you will be able to take notes effectively. Plus, it will come in handy as a writer to refer back to any notes you make.
I took Claude Brown to visit Norman once and he spotted the little notebook. From then on, Claude always carried one too. In fact at Claude’s funeral, they put one of his notebooks in his hand to hold before closing the casket.
2. Rewrite 40 times ~ Tom Robbins says he does that and I believe him. When he was writing Jitterbug Perfume he’d read me passages out loud to see how it sounded, then go back and write it again. I’ve never met a writer who spent more time polishing his metaphors.
3. Listen to music ~ Garth Stein played the Beastie Boys album In the Grooves and also R.E.M. while he was writing his new best seller, The Art of Racing in the Rain. “I couldn’t listen to the Beatles because I’d just want to sing along.”
4. Research ~ Robert Ludlum read voraciously into voluminous volumes on World War Two before he wrote his first book The Scarlatti Inheritance, and found the historical verisimilitude to create believable fantasies about huge Nazi conspiracies that tried to conquer the world.
5. Use a tape recorder ~ Hunter Thompson famously taped sections of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Curse of Lono, as I’ve described here. The trick is to take the transcriptions and edit, edit, edit.
Hunter had another idea that helped him write, which was to type out The Great Gatsby, start to finish, one word at a time, so he could “know how it felt to write like that.”
6. Go to the woods ~ Michael Gurian has a cabin a few miles from his home. It’s quiet, peaceful, no TV or phone. Lots of writers travel far to find this kind of solitude, but he’s lucky it’s nearby.
7. Imagine the deaths of your enemies ~ Herbert Gold, a dear friend and a prolific writer, still going strong at 84, left this message on my phone about how he faces the blank page each day:
“I look around desperately,
Imagine the deaths of my enemies,
Bless my children,
Sit at my ancient Royal typewriter,
Play kitten on the keys
Hope something happens
And oh yes –
Sometimes I drink a cup of coffee and take a pee.”
I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thanks, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your website?
I’m a little late to this post, try nearly a year and a half, but wisdom stands the test of time. Thank you for this post. It makes me feel a little less crazy, justifies the times when I’m in church and whip a scrap of paper out of my bag and start furiously scribbling a paragraph or two, or walk down the street speaking aloud the potential dialogue of two characters. And the music–my main inspiration.
I do carry a little notebook now after too many times returning home after hearing a wonderful bit of dialogue and then…nothing. Forgetting the rhythm, the music of what had amused me before.
Where do I get an ancient Royal typewriter? :)
Thank you for this advice.
Also I thank Mr. Coelho for his words. He’s correct, of course. After everything is said, done, and tried….the only thing a writer should do is start writing and then finish it!
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
When i write, i just do free writing. I continue even if it doesn’t make sense. But i realised that after sometime ideas start flowing and the book is born. Its like planting a seed and watering it until it emerge to be a tree of the seed i planted.Oh! writing is an art
I worked on this sentence for five months.
Thanks, Paulo. It’s an honor to have your comment and I certainly agree that you have to finish what you start. But do you ever have any moments of hesitation or even doubt that must be overcome, problems to be solved in order to continue the story? If so, can you tell us any of your personal techniques for getting past these hurdles? That’s what we were trying to document in this posting: tricks of the trade, so to speak, from successful working writers.
Well, I need to share my experience also. I don’t take notes (better saying, I may take but they are useless), music distracts me, I always write when I am surrounded by people (like Paris or Rio de Janeiro), and when I tried to write a book in the woods – I have a small watermill in the French Pyrenees – the book was very, very boring (I never published it). Therefore, I would say, after 100 million copies sold: the only rule that should be taken into consideration is the following
WHEN YOU START, YOU FINISH (sounds silly, but I know many writers that start and don’t finish their books)
For more in my writing habits go to my newsletter
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and check issues 170, 171 and 172
Thanks for that. Always seeking new ideas.
Thanks for the gr8 article!
thanks for the tips, I have a lot of catching up to do.