• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

"Weird writing habits of famous authors"

I don't know about anybody else but for me writing, really writing, is an excruciating chore. Sure, the first draft might pour out like water from a pump but it's the re-write that burns: what to leave out, what to put back in . . .

Hemingway said "always put in the weather" and that works to an extent; Bellow claimed that the best way to defeat an enemy is to write well and that works too, but in the end it's difficult, difficult work.

All of which is to say if your weird habit suffices, keep doing it.
 
Last edited:
Resume said:
I don't know about anybody else but for me writing, really writing, is an excruciating chore. Sure, the first draft might pour out like water from a pump but it's the re-write that burns: what to leave out, what to put back in . . .

Hemingway said "always put in the weather" and that works to an extent; Bellow claimed that the best way to defeat an enemy is to write well and that works too, but in the end it's difficult, difficult work.

All of which is to say if your weird habit suffices, keep doing it.
Click to expand...
I'm enjoying the re-write I think because I'm living inside the world I'm writing about. It's not boring yet, maybe by a year from now we'll see.
 
Cool stuff. I think that Nabakov is the greatest writer on that illustrious list. Interesting that he wrote in index cards. Also, Tom Wolfe's 10-page-a-day quota, without regard to how little or much time it takes, is pretty cool.
 
I LIVE for the rewrites. It's like carving: the general shape has become visible, started to take form. You can see the potential. It's a matter of doing the final shaping of the surface, defining the edges. And the form is so plastic, where you can alter it at will, try different textures and forms.

My screenwriting mentor (unfortunately passed) summed it up the best: great writing isn't written -- it's edited.

I've spent almost five years refining and focusing my best screenplay to date. It's ready to go out in the world. I'm both happy and sad. But it's time to move on to the next one.

I write in odd snatches, an hour grabbed during lunch break, maybe a few lines during break, odd times between projects. Then there are times a work literally claws its way out of me, DEMANDING my time above all else, and I drop everything to meet its demands. It finds outlet either on one of my laptops, on folded sheets of copy paper, or in a small spiral notebook.

The one thing that I get from comments of "successful" writers is that it's a craft. You practice and develop it over time. It's work, but glorious work.

Beanbag
 
Here is a good rundown on Joe Haldeman's habits. I like the fountain pen myself also. Haven't tried the candle light.

Science fiction writer Joe Haldeman discusses unplugging to create

Good advice though from Harlan Ellison if you don't think you have it in you to be a writer:

If someone who writes that badly can become a writer, then even the dippiest of us can become a writer, baboons can become writers, sludge and amoeba can become writers. The trick is not in becoming a writer, it is in staying a writer. Day after week after month after year. Staying in there for the long haul.
Click to expand...
 
Orphia Nay said:
So I should switch from beer to sherry to win the Language Award? ;)

http://flavorwire.com/193101/weird-writing-habits-of-famous-authors

(Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Francine Prose, John Cheever, T.S. Eliot, Thomas Wolfe, Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner.)
Click to expand...

No, you should switch to (goood!!) sherry for the taste and the kick!:D

But, don't forget the Fernet-Branca for the upset tummy after the celebration!! Tastes odd/interesting (and mixes well with Dr. Pepper--I calls 'em as I sees 'em).:)
 
Resume said:
I don't know about anybody else but for me writing, really writing, is an excruciating chore. Sure, the first draft might pour out like water from a pump but it's the re-write that burns: what to leave out, what to put back in . . .
Click to expand...


This is why after years of trying to be a writer, hanging out with writers, reading about writing, and some actual writing, I stopped wanting to be a writer.

I ran into one of those writers I knew once and she asked me what I was writing. "Nothing anymore," I said. She was horrified. I was elated.
 
Ysidro said:
This is why after years of trying to be a writer, hanging out with writers, reading about writing, and some actual writing, I stopped wanting to be a writer.

I ran into one of those writers I knew once and she asked me what I was writing. "Nothing anymore," I said. She was horrified. I was elated.
Click to expand...

:) Yep. I couldn't live without reading, but I can certainly live without writing. As my lack of Language Awards demonstrate.
 
Ysidro said:
This is why after years of trying to be a writer, hanging out with writers, reading about writing, and some actual writing, I stopped wanting to be a writer.

I ran into one of those writers I knew once and she asked me what I was writing. "Nothing anymore," I said. She was horrified. I was elated.
Click to expand...



Many writers I've encountered describe it not as a gift, but as a disease, or a curse, and I would tend to agree. Sometimes I love writing, sometimes I hate it. But at all times I need to write.

I've come across many people in my life who mention "writing a book" as something they'd "like to do", something to tick off a list, as it is. I doubt 1 in 1,000 of them will ever start. They're not writers. Writers write. They don't talk about the book they want to write "one day"; they're already writing it, and they can't stop, even if they want to, which often they do.

I've often contemplated what would happen if I lost all my writing work I've done (creation of a fantasy world, etc). I think I would honestly lose the will to live. It's such a fundamental part of who I am, it would be worse - far worse - than losing a limb, or a sense. It would honestly be worse than losing a loved one.
 
I've split the interesting discussion about Flannery O'Connor's writing to its own thread here, as it deserves its own thread.
Posted By: LashL
 
gumboot said:
Many writers I've encountered describe it not as a gift, but as a disease, or a curse, and I would tend to agree. Sometimes I love writing, sometimes I hate it. But at all times I need to write.

I've come across many people in my life who mention "writing a book" as something they'd "like to do", something to tick off a list, as it is. I doubt 1 in 1,000 of them will ever start. They're not writers. Writers write. They don't talk about the book they want to write "one day"; they're already writing it, and they can't stop, even if they want to, which often they do.

I've often contemplated what would happen if I lost all my writing work I've done (creation of a fantasy world, etc). I think I would honestly lose the will to live. It's such a fundamental part of who I am, it would be worse - far worse - than losing a limb, or a sense. It would honestly be worse than losing a loved one.
Click to expand...

It is indeed a disease, and the symptoms resemble mental illness. I have learned to work on dialogue only while in total seclusion, for example.
As for people that talk about writing, but don't actually write... I have an old friend who told me he wrote a book and just needs to finish it. It turns out, he's never actually started it. What he has is an "idea", and it sounds almost exactly like a movie he saw as a kid.
There's people like that all over NYC and Hollywood. They want to have written without actually writing.
Then there are the people that DO write, but never try to publish. They supposedly have stacks of manuscripts that have never been seen by anyone. "I only write for myself" they say.
Real writers are either published or collect rejection slips until they are.
 
gumboot said:
I've often contemplated what would happen if I lost all my writing work I've done (creation of a fantasy world, etc). I think I would honestly lose the will to live. It's such a fundamental part of who I am, it would be worse - far worse - than losing a limb, or a sense. It would honestly be worse than losing a loved one.
Click to expand...

In a word processor accident, I lost, completely lost, a 50,000 word detective novella. I decided to abandon literary aspirations (some would claim I never had any) to try to write some junk and didn't feel the need to back it up on disc.

It was pretty good junk too.
 
Resume said:
In a word processor accident, I lost, completely lost, a 50,000 word detective novella. I decided to abandon literary aspirations (some would claim I never had any) to try to write some junk and didn't feel the need to back it up on disc.

It was pretty good junk too.
Click to expand...


That sucks. :(

I've not calculated a total world count for all of my work in a while (and a lot of it's not really measurable in that way) but last time I counted it was up around 3 million words and I would estimate it's probably close to 5 million now.

I currently have 1,666 files totally 1.56GB.
 
gumboot said:
That sucks. :(

I've not calculated a total world count for all of my work in a while (and a lot of it's not really measurable in that way) but last time I counted it was up around 3 million words and I would estimate it's probably close to 5 million now.

I currently have 1,666 files totally 1.56GB.
Click to expand...

Any books on the horizon? I would definitely buy one.
 
Resume said:
In a word processor accident, I lost, completely lost, a 50,000 word detective novella. I decided to abandon literary aspirations (some would claim I never had any) to try to write some junk and didn't feel the need to back it up on disc.

It was pretty good junk too.
Click to expand...
Blank DVD's run about $0.23 each. Once a month, I rip my Screenplays and Novels folders off to one and put in my fire safe.

You can call that my "weird" habit as an author. Might not have the latest revision available, but I can usually reconstruct what happened in the last thirty days or so reasonably well.

Beanbag
 
Beanbag said:
Blank DVD's run about $0.23 each. Once a month, I rip my Screenplays and Novels folders off to one and put in my fire safe.

You can call that my "weird" habit as an author. Might not have the latest revision available, but I can usually reconstruct what happened in the last thirty days or so reasonably well.

Beanbag
Click to expand...

My wife asked "You gonna back up you files now bright boy?"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom