Latest / The Daily Writer / The Writing Routines of 5 Famous Authors
Transcript
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Rider.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: Well, I am thrilled that you could join me for today's episode.
- 0:37SPEAKER_00: You know, the whole idea of this podcast revolves around things like habits, routines, and rituals.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly why it's called the Daily Writer, because we don't want to be just like the monthly writer or the yearly writer or the weekly writer.
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: We want to do it on a daily basis.
- 0:54SPEAKER_00: Now, I realize some people may not do it literally every single day of the week, but the idea is frequency, it's regularity, it's habits, routines, and rituals, as I mentioned.
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: So, in honor of that today, I want to take some time to look at the writing routines of five famous authors.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: And this is going to be a really fun episode, and I think you're really going to enjoy it.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: We're going to dive into those and see how we can apply those lessons to our own lives.
- 1:19SPEAKER_00: Because many times we look at those literary giants and those great storytellers, whether they're historical or contemporary, we look at them and we think, I can never aspire to such great heights as a writer.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, we can learn from what they did and we can apply those lessons to our own lives, to our own writing, and we can become more successful ourselves.
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: Before we do that, I want to take just a moment to talk about some wins from our daily writer community over the last couple of weeks.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this uh many times before the last few weeks here on the episode, but it is so much fun to talk about these wins because this is a vibrant, engaged, action-taking community of writers, and it is awesome to see the progress that they've been making.
- 2:04SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in here.
- 2:05SPEAKER_00: The first one is from Ken, and he says, My biggest win from this past week was finishing my lead magnet, now to learn about convert kit and get it set up on my website.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: Ken is making steady progress in his writing, but also things that are surrounding his writing, such as getting his lead magnet set up for his website, as well as learning about ConvertKit, which is email marketing software.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really cool because it just is all about making steady progress.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: It's all about doing the things that are going to help you be successful as a writer, which is a theme that we often talk about here on this podcast.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: But it's not just about the writing, it's also about things like lead magnets, websites, email marketing, social media.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: And I realize that those kinds of things oftentimes stress out writers because, I mean, after all, most of us, at the end of the day, we just want to sit and do our writing.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: But if we're going to be successful and connect with readers and approach our writing like a business, then all those things are really important components of our success.
- 3:08SPEAKER_00: So great job, Ken.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: Proud of you, my friend.
- 3:10SPEAKER_00: We're making some awesome progress.
- 3:12SPEAKER_00: Our next win is from Jim.
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: And Jim said he's basically revamping and rebranding his whole business.
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: And that, of course, sounds very intimidating.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: It sounds like a huge deal, and it is.
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: But man, Jim is a go-getter.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: Jim is absolutely on fire because he does a lot of content around story crafting.
- 3:30SPEAKER_00: Jim is a wonderful storyteller.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: He just finished the first draft of his first novel.
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: I'm really, really excited to read that and to help share that on social media and other places.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: And this is a good lesson for all of us.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes in your business, you need to change directions.
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: I've done that many times over the years.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need to tweak things, we need to change things, we need to make a pivot.
- 3:53SPEAKER_00: And that's that is the nature of being an entrepreneur and really of being a writer here in the modern age.
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: Things are constantly changing in society.
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: They're changing with social media, with publishing options, and all kinds of things.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to change direction.
- 4:09SPEAKER_00: And whenever you do, just go for it.
- 4:11SPEAKER_00: Don't sit around and wait for two years because things are gonna change even more.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: Just dive into it and do it.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: Be like Jim, is my motto.
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: Be like Jim and dive in and just get it done.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: Then our final win is from MJ, and she had some great news.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: She said, My biggest win was that I signed a new book client.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: And I want to give a huge congrats to MJ because both of us are fellow, we are fellow ghostwriters.
- 4:33SPEAKER_00: So I know that's a huge win for her.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: And MJ's success is the result of networking and just putting in the time, connecting with people, and building her business.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: And I also want to point out, now I know this is not going to apply to everybody who's listening because not everybody listening to this podcast does client work, but for many of you, it will.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: This is about the value of doing client work and being able to make an income from your writing skills.
- 4:59SPEAKER_00: You know, your writing skills don't just benefit you, they can benefit other people as well.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: And when you benefit other people in a way that adds a lot of value to them and their business, you can make really good money doing that.
- 5:10SPEAKER_00: I've been ghostwriting for about a year and I have really enjoyed that.
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm just gonna be honest, ghostwriting can pay really, really well, which is one of the reasons why I do it, to be honest with you.
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I also do it because I get to work with some really cool people.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: I get to work with amazing clients, and whenever I do client work, that helps me grow.
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: It's not just a one-way street.
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: It's not not a thing where I kind of show up and do the work and then I get paid, and it's like an equal exchange.
- 5:36SPEAKER_00: I receive a lot of value from ghostwriting and doing client work above and beyond just getting paid for it.
- 5:41SPEAKER_00: I learn new skills, I get to make new connections, I learn about myself.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: I'm many times forced to grow because I'm having to grow into the client work that I'm doing and expand my own skills.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of value to doing that.
- 5:54SPEAKER_00: So I want to give MJ a huge congrats for some really, really cool wins lately in the group, including this massive win of signing a new book client.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: All right, let's dive into the main topic for this episode, which is the writing routines of five famous authors.
- 6:14SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna do is I'm gonna list these authors and then I'm gonna give a quote from them and then apply that to our own writing.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: First off is one of my favorites, E.
- 6:24SPEAKER_00: B.
- 6:24SPEAKER_00: White, who is the author of the classic children's novel, Stuart Little, as well as Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Webb, and other books, including the absolute classic elements of style.
- 6:36SPEAKER_00: If you have not read The Elements of Style, it is an absolute must-read as a writer.
- 6:41SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily the most exciting reading, I guess, but it's a short book and it has a lot of helpful advice for writing well in the modern world.
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: So here's what E.
- 6:51SPEAKER_00: B.
- 6:51SPEAKER_00: White said in terms of his writing routine.
- 6:54SPEAKER_00: I never listen to music when I'm working.
- 6:57SPEAKER_00: I haven't that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn't like it at all.
- 7:01SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, I'm able to work fairly well among ordinary distractions.
- 7:05SPEAKER_00: My house has a living room that is at the core of everything that goes on.
- 7:10SPEAKER_00: It is a passageway to the cellar, to the kitchen, to the closet where the phone lives.
- 7:14SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of traffic.
- 7:16SPEAKER_00: 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.
- 7:24SPEAKER_00: In consequence, the members of my household never pay the slightest attention to my being a writing man.
- 7:30SPEAKER_00: They make all the noise and fuss they want to.
- 7:33SPEAKER_00: If I get sick of it, I have places I can go.
- 7:36SPEAKER_00: A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the lesson we can take away from E.B.
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: White, and that is just write anyway.
- 7:50SPEAKER_00: Even when there's distractions, even when there's chaos around you, don't wait for the perfect conditions.
- 7:55SPEAKER_00: Just write anyway.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: You know, we writers sometimes dream of floating off into the sunset or floating away on a on a boat and being on a deserted island so we can, you know, have the wind from the ocean blowing in our hair, and everything is nice, and we're sipping from a coconut and and we're riding away and we're totally at peace.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: But that's not how real life tends to be.
- 8:19SPEAKER_00: That's not reality.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're irritable, sometimes our family is noisy.
- 8:24SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes we haven't planned our time correctly.
- 8:28SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's interruptions, sometimes the weather is bad, or we have other things that are causing us stress in life.
- 8:35SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that we just have to get it done anyway.
- 8:37SPEAKER_00: And I figure if somebody the stature of E.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: B.
- 8:40SPEAKER_00: White can write his books within imperfect conditions, we can do the same thing.
- 8:45SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to write among the distractions anyway.
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: The second quote I want to share is from Stephen King, who, of course, is a famous horror novelist.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: And he's been writing since the 1970s, so he's got his routine pretty well established.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: By the way, my personal favorite book of Stephen King's is one of his earliest, and that is a collection of short stories called Night Shift.
- 9:06SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love the stories in Night Shift, and every every two or three years I grab it and I read through a bunch of those stories, and I just I'm just in awe of his storytelling ability.
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: It's really, really a great book if you've never read it.
- 9:20SPEAKER_00: Here's what Stephen King said about his writing routine.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: There are certain things I do if I sit down to write.
- 9:26SPEAKER_00: I have a glass of water or a cup of tea.
- 9:29SPEAKER_00: There's a certain time I sit down from 8 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning.
- 9:35SPEAKER_00: I have my vitamin pill and my music sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: The cumulative process of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you're going to be dreaming soon.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: It's not any different than a bedtime routine.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: Do you go to bed a different way every night?
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Stephen King makes a great point there.
- 9:59SPEAKER_00: The lesson here is to establish some anchor rituals to help you develop your routine.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: So he mentioned some things that he does related to having a pill that he takes, his music, sitting in the same seat, having a glass of water or a cup of tea.
- 10:13SPEAKER_00: Those are things that are very ritualistic.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: So I want to ask you, what are some rituals that you have with your writing?
- 10:20SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something like making coffee, playing specific music, or other things that are signaling to your brain that it's time to write.
- 10:28SPEAKER_00: One of the rituals that I have, I don't use this all the time that I write, but I use it pretty frequently I have a Spotify playlist of movie scores.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: And this includes stuff from Star Wars and Harry Potter and The Avengers and Indiana Jones and I think all the Marvel movies, just about it, just all kinds of stuff.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: It's really whatever I happen to be into at the moment, but it's all movie score music.
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: There's no lyrics to it, there's nobody singing on those typically.
- 10:55SPEAKER_00: It's just instrumental music, but it's very exciting music, and I find that that gets me kind of pumped up.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: My very favorite soundtrack of all time from a movie is the score from Batman from 1989.
- 11:06SPEAKER_00: Just that first track is just really, really cool when those French horns kind of come in, and then it it really speeds up and it's very exciting.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: I just love that.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of being a kid.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: So, whatever you got to do in terms of a writing ritual, just do it and figure out what works for you and use those anchor rituals to help you develop your routine.
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: Okay, next is Ernest Hemingway, who, of course, is a towering figure in literature over the last hundred years.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: And he was a novelist who wrote classics such as The Sun Also Rises, Farewell to Arms, The Old Man in the Sea, among many others.
- 11:43SPEAKER_00: Here's what Hemingway said.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible.
- 11:51SPEAKER_00: There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.
- 11:57SPEAKER_00: 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.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: Here's the lesson from Hemingway, and that is figure out your most productive time of day and take advantage of it.
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: And I think we should experiment with this.
- 12:14SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily believe that writing in the morning is the only way to go.
- 12:17SPEAKER_00: I have a good friend who writes late at night.
- 12:20SPEAKER_00: Sometimes she stays up till two or three in the morning and writes, and that's just when her brain is awake and when she does her best work.
- 12:26SPEAKER_00: And I think that's totally fine.
- 12:28SPEAKER_00: A lot of people swear by morning writing, but some people swear by evening writing or by lunchtime writing, whenever the heck you want to do it.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really matter.
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: It just depends on your biology and your schedule.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: So don't let anybody guilt you into thinking you've got to write at a certain time.
- 12:42SPEAKER_00: The important thing is what do you need to do to get it done?
- 12:45SPEAKER_00: When are you most productive?
- 12:46SPEAKER_00: And what does your life and your schedule allow?
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: Then use that as your springboard for getting your writing done.
- 12:52SPEAKER_00: For me, I would love to do early mornings, but since I take my son to school every day, that means I would have to get up like at five in the morning.
- 13:00SPEAKER_00: And I'm not opposed to getting up early.
- 13:01SPEAKER_00: It's just that that means I would have to go to bed about 9:30 or 10.
- 13:05SPEAKER_00: And that it doesn't really work for our family schedule.
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: I have a teenage son, so you know, if I go to bed like at 9 or 9:30, that means I'm kind of missing out on some time with him, and I don't really want to do that at this stage of my life.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: So my writing time ends up being typically in the afternoons when I'm done with my day job work, or it tends to be sometimes around 9 or 10 at night.
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those people who does tend to be a little bit more awake at night.
- 13:30SPEAKER_00: So I say do whatever works for you and don't let people guilt you into thinking you've got to do it a certain way.
- 13:37SPEAKER_00: The next author I want to highlight here is Jody Picult, and she is a contemporary best-selling novelist of books such as My Sister's Keeper, The Pact, and 19 Minutes.
- 13:48SPEAKER_00: Here's what she said.
- 13:49SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in writer's block.
- 13:52SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: When you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn't it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due?
- 13:59SPEAKER_00: Writer's block is having too much time on your hands.
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it.
- 14:07SPEAKER_00: You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page.
- 14:11SPEAKER_00: You can't edit a blank page.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: Keep writing even if you think it's bad.
- 14:20SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe this is this kind of thing has happened to you.
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: You write a you write a piece, whether it's, you know, a blog post or a social media post or an article or a book chapter or something.
- 14:31SPEAKER_00: And you don't feel like it's that great.
- 14:33SPEAKER_00: However, somebody else really loves it.
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: And the the thing is, whenever we're writing, we tend to judge our writing.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: We tend to perceive it as good or bad or whatever description we want to put on it.
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: But it's important to realize that we don't always know when something is going to resonate with somebody else.
- 14:51SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's impossible to be objective about our own work.
- 14:55SPEAKER_00: So keep on writing even when you don't think it's very good.
- 14:59SPEAKER_00: I was telling somebody just the other day, and I was being totally honest, that I give everything that I create a grade of B.
- 15:08SPEAKER_00: I think my artist suitcase book was an A-.
- 15:10SPEAKER_00: I would give that pretty good.
- 15:12SPEAKER_00: I think my client books have been A-level because I've put everything that I had into those books.
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: But the stuff that I create, you know, on a regular basis, like podcasts, blog posts, uh, emails, that kind of stuff, I give most of that a level of about a B or a grade of about a B.
- 15:29SPEAKER_00: Even this episode right now, I would give it probably a C, honestly.
- 15:33SPEAKER_00: I didn't have time to plan out this episode the way that I really would have liked to.
- 15:37SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm just kind of doing the best I can within the confines of my life and my other responsibilities and family and those kind of things.
- 15:44SPEAKER_00: But I'm here doing the work, I'm here on the mic and I'm showing up to do it.
- 15:48SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you like this episode.
- 15:50SPEAKER_00: You know, the thing is we can always go back and redo something and make it better later on.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: And the other thing about it is that what really separates B level from A-level work anyway?
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: I mean, at some point, if you're obsessed with doing A-level work, that means you're going to be a perfectionist and you're never going to get stuff done because you're going to be obsessed about minor details that don't matter.
- 16:11SPEAKER_00: So I kind of feel like for most of us, you know, honestly, most of us who are writers are perfectionists or we lean in that direction.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: So really, when it comes down to it, what we grade as a B, everybody else grades as an A.
- 16:26SPEAKER_00: So just realize that your 90% is somebody else's 100%.
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: So just be content with B level work, you know, if you're a perfectionist and then know when you put out B-level work, it's still going to be really, really good.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: So just kind of be content.
- 16:39SPEAKER_00: And even when you don't think it's that great, keep on writing, keep on publishing, and move on to the next thing.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: Here's the final author that I want to highlight, and that is Toni Morrison.
- 16:48SPEAKER_00: She is a novelist with such classics like Song of Solomon and Beloved.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: And for most of her career, she had a nine-to-five job as an editor at Random House, but she was also a university professor and a single parent.
- 17:01SPEAKER_00: So she had to write in her spare time.
- 17:04SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we we perceive these very successful and well-known authors as people who just had all the time in the world to create these great classics, but that's not always the case.
- 17:14SPEAKER_00: Many, many times, it's in fact that's happened this happens so often, it's rather surprising that many times these successful authors are just like we are.
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: They're just writing in the nooks and crannies of their life.
- 17:26SPEAKER_00: Here's what Tony Morrison said about her writing routine.
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: But the important thing is that I don't do anything else.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: I avoid the social life normally associated with publishing.
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: I don't go to cocktail parties, I don't do or go to dinner parties.
- 17:41SPEAKER_00: I need that time in the evening because I can do a tremendous amount of work then, and I can concentrate.
- 17:47SPEAKER_00: When I sit down to write, I never brood.
- 17:50SPEAKER_00: I have so many other things to do with my children and teaching that I can't afford it.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: I brood, thinking of ideas in the automobile when I'm driving to work or in the subway or when I'm mowing the lawn.
- 18:01SPEAKER_00: By the time I get to the paper, something's there.
- 18:05SPEAKER_00: I can produce.
- 18:07SPEAKER_00: Well, the lesson here is that you can't have it all.
- 18:10SPEAKER_00: And that's just the honest truth.
- 18:12SPEAKER_00: You cannot have it all.
- 18:13SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to sacrifice some things in order to write.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: It might be TV shows, it might be some of your social life, it might be some of your relaxing time or whatever.
- 18:23SPEAKER_00: You only have so much time and energy.
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: You can't do everything.
- 18:27SPEAKER_00: And just like Tony Morrison, we're gonna have to say no to some things.
- 18:30SPEAKER_00: Really, we're gonna have to say no to most things that are not really essential in our life if we're going to focus on our writing and get the writing done that we really want to.
- 18:41SPEAKER_00: Well, this has been an absolute blast doing this episode.
- 18:44SPEAKER_00: I learned a lot and this was a lot of fun.
- 18:46SPEAKER_00: I also have some links in the show notes if you want to dive into more routines and rituals of famous authors.
- 18:52SPEAKER_00: There is an article from brainpickings.org.
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: There's an article from James Clear's website on daily routines of writers, and there's also a link to a book called Daily Rituals by Mason Curry, which is really, really fascinating.
- 19:06SPEAKER_00: I'd highly recommend that book because it dives into the routines and rituals of lots and lots of famous authors.
- 19:12SPEAKER_00: So good stuff there.
- 19:13SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
- 19:16SPEAKER_00: I would be grateful if you would consider taking just a minute or two to leave an honest review of the show in iTunes.
- 19:22SPEAKER_00: Those reviews are really helpful for letting people know about the podcast and for reaching new listeners.
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: And if you know of anybody who would enjoy these episodes, please consider sharing it with them.
- 19:32SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailyriderlife.com.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.