#writer's routine

[thecanvasofmadness]

From the book “The Tao Of Writing: Imagine. Create. Flow” by Ralph L. Wahlstrom.

[wagyourtale]

randomhouse -Today’s #WritersRoutine is from Jordy Rosenberg, author of CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX. •What do you do beyond writing? According to this photo: cuddle my dog, Gnome de Guerre Rosenberg, ride my bike around, and pile coats on tables rather than on hangers where they belong. 

•Where/When do you write? Generally parked on a couch or at the dining table, with dog on lap. However, I began Confessions of the Fox some years ago while traveling cross-country on Amtrak. This was before I had a smartphone. I had printed out maps and diagrams of 18th century London prisons, so there was a fair amount of ekphrastic writing in the early process.

•What would surprise people the most about your routine? I'm not sure it would surprise any writer to hear that my "routine" involves a lot of flinging of self upon couches and moaning uselessly. 

•What is your outlining/research process? I am terrible at making outlines. I'm not proud of that fact. Mostly I write things on scraps of paper that I then arrange into hectic conglomerations on tables. 

•When are you the most productive? I have not been productive since the advent of the internet. 

•How do you solve writers block? I do not believe in writer's block as a diagnosis. People don't write for all kinds of reasons - their job, childcare, working through trauma, etc.. My perspective on "writers block" is that it is largely caused by real-life factors, and so when we are not writing we might actually be unconsciously germinating an idea that comes out of the experience of these factors and constraints. 

•Do you write alone, or with others? Depends on the other. 

•What inspires you? Politics, the history and present of utopian thought, and scent.

[5soswfttwtaf]

every time people praise my fic for mental health portrayal, a tiny part of me heals

[5soswfttwtaf]

been writing a lot today, and added a small (big to me) revelation that i was supposed to add waaaaaay later but it just fits so well rn for the narration, i was so pleased when it all clicked in my head

[thecanvasofmadness]

[artwordbw]

randomhouse -- We've got an inside look at THE LOCALS author Jonathan Dee's #WritersRoutine: What do you eat/drink to keep yourself charged throughout a writing day? Coffee, unsurprisingly . In the kitchen of this house that’s home to two writers (both of whom like to work in the morning), you will find an old-school percolator, a French press, a Pyrex drip setup, and now one of those Nespresso single-cup machines. So that should give you some idea. As far as eating goes, I tend to graze and nosh on whatever’s closest to the front of the fridge during the day, and then try to make up for that by quitting work early in order to prepare some needlessly elaborate dinner that may or may not come out well but is mostly just an excuse for quitting work early. What would surprise people most about your routine? The older I get, the more looks of surprise I endure when I tell people that I still hand-write the first draft of every novel. Yellow legal pads, Pilot razor-point pens. Because it’s quiet, and private, and because there’s no chance of an interesting email or news alert popping up in the corner of a yellow legal pad; but mostly because it discourages real-time revision. Which may sound strange; but when you’re in that trance of initial invention, you want to keep yourself in it, you want to keep dreaming forward. When I type a bad sentence on a screen, the urge to stop and tinker with that sentence until it stops being bad is almost overwhelming. But you can’t really tinker in the same way with single-spaced handwriting. You just have to shrug and say okay, I’ll fix that later: so what happens next? #bookstagram #igbooks #igreads #thelocals #jonathandee #writer #writing #writersofinstagram #writersdesk #cat #bookshelf

[artwordbw]

randomhouse -- Irish author and creative writing teacher, Colin McCann, is featured in today's #WritersRoutine! And he's full of writing inspiration: •What do you eat/drink to keep yourself charged throughout a writing day? My day begins in a fairly healthy/boring way -- yogurt, granola, a run in the park with the dog -- and then descends rapidly  from there. I avoid lunches at all costs: they are the ruin of a working day.  So I generally write until the early afternoon.  Four o'clock is the witching hour when I potentially allow myself the first drink of the day. The first drink is known as the rozziner in Dublin and it's one of my favorite words -- it comes from the rosin that's put on the violin bow before playing. Four o'clock is a great time to meet with friends, in fact. You can hang for just an hour or so or you can go the whole evening, but the choice is always there, depending on how the rozziner goes down. •How do you solve writers block? There's only one way to solve writer's block. Let's not be delicate about the solution: YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR ARSE IN THE CHAIR. Easier said than done, mind you. But you have to face the terror of the blank page. Stare it down. Fight it. Don't get up from your chair.  Don't wash the dishes. Don't pay the bills. Don't follow the obscure soccer game on the Internet. Just stay with your arse in the chair. And even if you don't get a single word written, you still have done a day's work.  And the other thing is, you should never talk about writer's block. Don't succumb to its temptation as an excuse.  Writers write. That's all. •Do you write alone or with others? I write alone, alongside seven billion others.