a writer's day

The great non-fiction writer John McPhee describes his daily routine:

OK, it’s nine in the morning. All I’ve got to do is write. But I go hours before I’m able to write a word. I make tea. I mean, I used to make tea all day long. And exercise, I do that every other day. I sharpened pencils in the old days when pencils were sharpened. I just ran pencils down. Ten, eleven, twelve, one, two, three, four—this is every day. This is damn near every day. It’s four-thirty and I’m beginning to panic. It’s like a coiling spring. I’m really unhappy. I mean, you’re going to lose the day if you keep this up long enough. Five: I start to write. Seven: I go home. That happens over and over and over again. So why don’t I work at a bank and then come in at five and start writing? Because I need those seven hours of gonging around. I’m just not that disciplined. I don’t write in the morning—I just try to write.

From an interview with the Paris Review.

Comments

[LadyMondegreen]

Oh, Ian, thank you for this. I'm not even a semi-great nonfiction writer, but John McPhee's process describes me to a T, except that I read blogs (for inspiration, I tell myself, but that's a crock) instead of sharpening pencils.

Just for the record, it's night now, my blog is written, and I'm giving myself a treat for a job well done. Tomorrow I'll read you for inspiration. Tonight it's for pleasure -- and a pleasure it's been.

[Hal]

This makes me feel better about something I've been trying to write for weeks now, but it makes the idea of being a full-time writer sound intolerable, It really must be a calling.

[Ian Leslie]

Marbury is at your service.