Writers are Weird: Writer’s Routines (Part Two)

An eclectic bunch of Brits today, and this time I don’t mean me. The great, the surreal and the genius!

Will Self is an elaborate and intricate writer so you would think that his prose would need complete silence at almost monasterial levels. However, his approach is even more complex than his writing. Apart from working on a manual typewriter (quaint yet what a pain in the ass) as early in the morning as possible he works on multiple drafts at the same time. He waits until the first draft is 80% finished and then draft two and subsequently draft three. He says it gives him a, ‘grasp of the totality of the book’!
He goes onto to talk of battling the loneliness of the writer, which he believes is alleviated by the following of Rituals. He smokes, the more noble and ritualistic pipes and cigars and drinks Coffee, tea and what he calls strange infusions! Knowing Mr Self’s colourful past, that could mean a number of things. Overall, he states, you have to have a  healthy appetite for solitude and if you don’t, you have little business being a writer.

C.S. Lewis constantly lamented that he rarely had a “normal” day but he always aimed to have a standard day that was repeatable, building up the illusion of routine, even if he failed to live up to it. He would choose to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at his desk by nine, there to read and write until one (oh and if a cup of good tea or coffee was brought to him around eleven, he was very appreciative). As you can see from his exacting timings, lunch should be on the table at one precisely! By two (at the latest) he would be on the road for a walk OR a talk, never both at the same time as he did not like to be distracted from his concentration on specific pleasures. He would arrive back from his walk at four-fifteen and would take tea in solitude. He liked to read and eat as the same time (as do I) but never poetry, which he saw as blasphemous! He preferred ‘gossipy, formless’ books which could be opened anywhere. Whereas I imagined he was reading the thirties equivalent of National Enquirer, he was actually devouring Boswell, a translation of Herodotus and a History of English Literature. Light reading then…
At five he was back at work again until seven. Then an evening meal and at last people were allowed to talk to him (or failing that light reading).  Bed was no later than eleven and he would fall asleep dreading the knock of the postman as he despised correspondence and saw it a burden. His ideal life was quite solitary so he was ideally suited towards his literary intentions.

Charles Darwin, as summarised by his son Frances had developed a rigid that seldom changed in his later years, even when he had visitors. He felt that a half an hour of conversation at a time was all that he could stand, because it completely exhausted him.

0700 – Up and off for a short walk (somewhat of a theme occurring)
0745 – Breakfast alone (again, a theme)
0800–0930 – Worked in his study which he considered this his best working time.
0930–1030 – Went to drawing room and read his letters, which were usually volumes from supporters and detractors alike, followed by reading aloud of family letters.
1030-1200 – Returned to study, which period he considered the end of his working day. END! Wow. Well I guess the guy figured out evolution so he was due some downtime in his latter years.
1200 – Walk, starting with visit to greenhouse, usually alone or with a dog.
1245 – Lunch with whole family (his main meal of the day). After lunch read The Times of London and answered his letters.
1500 – Had a lie down in his bedroom or on the sofa and smoked a cigarette whilst he listened to a novel or other light literature read by Emma Darwin, his wife.
1600 – Walked again.
1630–1730 – Worked in his study usually clearing his affairs.
1800 – Rested again in bedroom with Emma reading aloud.
1930 – High tea while his family dined.Sometimes he played backgammon with Emma, usually followed by reading to himself whilst Emma played the piano.
2200 – He was usually in bed by 2230 but slept unusually badly.

So this instalment of the LitBrits shows that they like their routine and rituals, their traditions, if you will. This probably says a lot about the former Empire dwellers. Next time we will look at our more contemporary cousins and the best sellers.

Writers are Weird: Writer’s Routines (Part One)

Sorry, but it’s the truth.

Most are weird good, the type of weird that brings a smile to your face and an expedience to your typing. The kind of weird that your loved ones smirk at but sometimes don’t get, but they’re cool with it. But your pets are sometimes confused as hell when you’re wearing a wig and a baseball cap and dressed in a t-shirt and shorts with slippers in the shape of Scooby Doo. However some are weird WEIRD. I have tried to make a full and frank account of some of them here. Feel free to add your own habits and weird little things so we can compare and contrast and then nervously change the subject and then pretend we never said anything.

W. H. Auden was perhaps one of the first writers to uses stimulants as a  “labor-saving device”. He habitually used speed and swallowed Benzedrine every morning for twenty years. He balanced the somewhat uplifting effects of these amphetamines with the barbiturate Seconal when he wanted to sleep (as well as keeping a glass of vodka at the end of the bed if he woke up). Having such a haphazard approach to narcotics, he saw it as as a pragmatic approach to his workload that sometimes led to physical breakdown and mental collapses. Not to be recommended unless you have a very sturdy constitution.

Stephen King is probably the most prolific Horror writer of our generation so surely there is something to learn from his habits. He seems to put a lot down to routine. “There are certain things I do if I sit down to write,” he said. “I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning,” he explained. “I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose 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.” So it seems a certain amount of compulsive tendencies may help upkeep the writing habit.
“It’s not any different than a bedtime routine,” he continued. “Do you go to bed a different way every night? Is there a certain side you sleep on? I mean I brush my teeth, I wash my hands. Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? I don’t know. And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. I don’t know why.” Yep, definitely a freaky need for routine and order but then ho can argue with his portfolio. Also, I guess you have to admit that the process of writing needs selfish isolation sometimes, who can completely switch off the world around them to concentrate?

Finally for this part of an ongoing series a well known figure more for his leadership rather than his  writing prowess, Winston Churchill. HIs daily routine changed little during even the war years. He always awoke about 7:30 a.m. and stayed in bed waiting for his gargantuan  breakfast whilst he read his mail and papers. And then, get this for a great gig, he stayed in bed for a couple of hours working whilst he dictated to his secretaries. Then, it gets better, at 1100, he arose, had bath and perhaps took a walk around the garden in anticipation of his whisky and soda to his study.
At 1300 he usually joined guests and family for a three-course lunch. It seems like it was a boozy lunch too, his wife Clementine drank claret and Winston Pol Roger champagne served at a specific temperature (with the obligatory port brandy and cigars). Lunch ended about 1530 and he went back to his study to work or, if the mood took him, played cards or backgammon with Clementine. At 1700, after another whisky and soda, he had a nap for ninety minutes. Amazingly this little siesta, a habit he had learned from his time in Cuba, allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours. At 1830, he woke up, had another bath and dressed for a 2000 dinner, which was the focal point and highlight of Churchill’s day. The talk of the day, usually dominated by Winston, was probably more important that was on their plates. Depending on the guests drinks and cigars went into the the wee hours. The guests retired and Churchill returned to his study for another hour or so of work.
So there you have it, part one of this ongoing series shows that writer’s routines are weird, even weirder than you. (So far).