Habits of Great Writers

Wednesday, 10. September 2008 - 8:23 am

Leo Babauta culls a list of great writers and their writing habits (via). I don’t share the same taste but two of my favourite writers do find a place in Leo’s list.

1. Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays. That’s a lot of writing each day, and it has led to some incredible results: King is one of the most prolific writers of our time.

2. Ernest Hemingway. By contrast with King, “Papa” Hemingway wrote 500 words a day. That’s not bad, though. Hemingway, like me, woke early to write to avoid the heat and to write in peace and quiet. Interestingly, though Hemingway is famous for his alcoholism, he said he never wrote while drunk.

Contented.

 

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3 comments

  1. Viswanath Vittal

    Excellent post yet again, my friend. Can I have the entire list of habits of great writers?

  2. Sandeep

    Thanks Vittal.

    Follow the link (it’s in the first sentence) to get the list.

  3. Vibha Mitra

    He has no patience for excess (most use of adjectives and adverbs, he writes, just adds clutter) or tired phraseology (for instance, he’d like to outlaw all leads involving those “future archaeologists” most often found “stumbl[ing] upon the remains of our civilization”
    If Zinnsner was on the Pulitzer Prize Selection Board History would have been rewritten.
    our Ms Roy would never have got the platform for all her sideline activities.
    Bachao Narmade nahin – Prolix writing se!

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