Anthony Trollope and me

 

I’m reading Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney. It’s good stuff and I recommend it, especially to authors who, like me, sometimes lack the stuff needed to sit the hell down and write.

Here’s a few paragraphs from the book—plus a few notes from me—that should be of interest to all writers:

[p 114] Anthony Trollope1 believed it unnecessary—and inadvisable—to write for more than three hours a day.2 He became one of the greatest and most prolific novelists in history while holding a full-time job with the British Post Office3. He would rise at five-thirty4, fortify himself with coffee,5 and spend a half hour reading the previous day’s work6 to get himself in the right voice. Then he would write for two and a half hours, monitoring the time with a watch placed on the table. He forced himself to produce one page of 250 words every quarter hour. Just to be sure, he counted the words. “I have found that the 250 words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch went,” he reported.7 At this rate he could produce 2,500 words by breakfast. He didn’t expect to do so every single day—sometimes there were business obligations or fox hunts8—but he made sure each week to meet a goal. For each of his novels, he would draw up a working schedule, typically planning for 10,000 words a week, then keep a diary.

            “In this I have entered, day by day, the number of pages I have written, so that if at any time I have slipped into idleness for a day or two9, the record of that idleness has been there, staring me in the face, and demanding of me increased labor, so that the deficiency might be supplied,” he explained. “There has been a record before me, and a week passed with an insufficient number of pages has been a blister to my eye, and a month so disgraced would have been a sorrow to my heart.”10

  1. No, I haven’t read him either. But I will now. 
  2. Three hours? I’m lucky to get one.
  3. I have a full-time job at an ad agency (see if you can spot my picture) and I bet you have full-time obligations too.
  4. Slacker. I’m up at 5.
  5. Diet Mountain Dew.
  6. Good idea. Thanks, Anthony.
  7. Bullshit.
  8. Who doesn’t?
  9. A day or two? I wish that’s all it was.
  10. At least we have this in common.

Thoughts? 


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All that timing...

Submitted by Kendall on Fri, 2011-10-14 13:11.

I abhor regimentation. I don't know if it is a backlash from my Navy days. I suspect I have always been this way. Timing myself with a watch would distract me from writing.
I write when the muse strikes, which, happily, is most of the time. I do "backread" a chapter or so. I haven't thought of that process as "getting into the voice", but it makes sense. I think of it more as "picking up the flow".
When I'm writing, I pay little attention to the time. I've found that time takes on a new sensation during writing. It feels like it's going slow, but actually passes quickly.
I do feel guilty when I haven't touched a project in days, especially when I know I could have. I feel guilty at this very moment. (Gee, thanks.)
There is no way in Hell that I would count words, pages or minutes and hours. I'm in the story with the characters, directing or observing. Looking at my watch or counting words rather than producing them would not allow me to stay in that "place". Chapters begin and end when they do.
I edit on the go if it is quick and requires only an instant's thought. Otherwise, I plow through, telling the story, and "pretty it up" when I stop- at chapter's end or chapters' end, depending on the moment I apply the brakes.

My guess is personality dictates writing style, perhaps also influenced by the degree of difficulty writing presents to the individual. I've heard many writers tell of how difficult writing is. That is not my experience. Clothes shopping with my wife is difficult. Writing is a pleasure.

discipline vs. creativity

Submitted by Amy E Colburn on Fri, 2011-10-14 12:26.

I can relate this to my work, as a full-time artist. I often get asked, "how do you get your artwork done, even if you're not 'inspired' creatively?" I think your post answers that same question. Writers and artists have the same dilemma. I find that if I wait for the right moment of unleashed creativity to slap me upside the head, I would be painting for about 30 minutes out of each week, and get virtually nothing done. (Unacceptable, being that I am trying to make a full-time career out of it.) By sitting myself down - and sometimes duck taping myself to my work bench - (and even setting the timer) I can pump out some seriously good work. So, rather than waiting for the creative spark, I have to trust myself to *create* the creative spark instead. Interesting post! Thanks, Charles! ~Amy