5 Writerly Lessons From the Greats

August 21, 2014 Michelle Griep

What comes to mind when you think of a writer? Eccentricity? OCD? Control freak? There are some traits that are common to creative types that to "normals" seem kind of weird, but doggone it, if that's what it takes to get your art in the marketplace, I say let's copy them. Here are some rituals that might be worth mimicking . . .

1. Get your butt out of bed.

This one is probably my least favorite, but there's no denying big names ranging from Mozart to Frank Lloyd Wright to Georgia O'Keeffe were all early risers. Even Hemingway endorsed writing at an early hour by saying, "There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write."

2. Be flexible about your workspace.

Jane Austen used to write in the family sitting-room, with her mother sewing next to her. Often she wrote on scraps of paper that could be hidden away when interrupted by visitors, proving it's not where you write . . . it's what you write.

3. Don't give up your day job.

TS Eliot worked at Lloyds bank. William Faulkner held a night shift at a power plant. Many of the greats held other jobs besides their writing, so quit your sulking just because you have to punch a time clock.

4. Slip into your hiking boots.

Tchaikovsky believed that he had to take a two hour walk -- exactly two hours. If he returned even a few minutes early, great misfortunes would befall him. I don't know about the misfortune part, but taking a short nature walk usually gets my creative juices flowing.

5. Java it up.

Beethoven measured out his beans carefully. Balzac drank fifty cups a day. Kierkegaard poured black coffee over a cup full of sugar. Eew. For whatever freakish reason, caffeine is the drug of choice for many artists.

I know. It sounds like I'm making all this stuff up, right? Well, I am a fiction writer, but nope . . . all this information is taken from the book Daily Rituals ~ How Artists Work written by Mason Currey. What kind of interesting rituals are you partaking of, hmmm?