Writing the Day

While perusing Pinterest, the thief of disgusting amounts of time, I fell across a quote by E.B. White, known for authoring “Charlotte’s Web.”

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.” 

E.B. White

This rings true for a great many things. The question we get most frequently is “When are you going to have kids?” Valid question. When Matt and I say “Now is not the right time,” a lot of people will respond, “There’s no ideal time to have kids.” Hmmm. Maybe not an ideal time, but there certainly are better times of life to have kids than while my husband is still needing 11 hours of sleep per night and doing all things possible to keep our primary revenue generator, his body, well maintained. Sure, maybe we could get away with having a child in the next year, but I am not so sure I could exercise that understanding I previously wrote about when I get a few hours of sleep in order for Matt to get the rest he needs for his occupation. And let’s be serious, Matt is a lighter sleeper than me, so he would end up losing sleep and helping out a ton, despite his best efforts to keep swimming his priority. And that was a rabbit trail.

One terrific thing about writing is I can start writing and step away when I fall out of it’s spell. I do not think successful parenting works that way, so perhaps that was not the best parallel to draw. The longer I look at this emboldened quote, the less original it seems. What E.B. White meant to say was, “YOLO, so write.”

Along with E.B. White’s words, I fell across daily schedules of legendary writers. What is a writer’s schedule supposed to look like? It can’t be a 9-5. Benjamin Franklin’s schedule may have been the most impressive to me…he slept for a whopping 5 hours, max. I feel like, historically-speaking, ingenious people need little sleep. So judging by my 9-hour average, I’m no genius.

Ben Franklin. Doing work!

What good have I done today? I love that Franklin was dead set on doing good. Not changing history, inventing remarkable things, becoming famous…just doing good.

Some other daily structures I found interesting simply because these brilliant people cannot sit still. Franklin was known to be an avid swimmer. He invented hand paddles when he was 11. I think in those many hours set aside for “work,” he may have taken a dip. Angelou went shopping. I would love to hear Maya Angelou commentary on a shopping excursion. She could probably eloquently coax me into buying anything. Vonnegut walked and swam. C.S. Lewis walked for two hours everyday! That sounds so boring to me, but I’m sure it was pure inspiration for him.

Maya Angelou shared her day with Paris Review in 1990:

“I write in the morning and then go home about midday and take a shower, because writing, as you know, is very hard work, so you have to do a double ablution. Then I go out and shop — I’m a serious cook — and pretend to be normal. I play sane — Good morning! Fine, thank you. And you? And I go home. I prepare dinner for myself and if I have houseguests, I do the candles and the pretty music and all that. Then after all the dishes are moved away I read what I wrote that morning. And more often than not if I’ve done nine pages I may be able to save two and a half or three. That’s the cruelest time you know, to really admit that it doesn’t work. And to blue pencil it. When I finish maybe fifty pages and read them — fifty acceptable pages — it’s not too bad.”

A day in the life of Kurt Vonnegut, taken from a letter to his wife in 1965:

“In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me. I’m just as glad they haven’t consulted me about the tiresome details. What they have worked out is this: I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit-ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not. Last night, time and my body decided to take me to the movies. I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which I took very hard. To an unmoored, middle-aged man like myself, it was heart-breaking. That’s all right. I like to have my heart broken.”

Yeah, alcohol is also a very important part of lots of writers’ days. Like an integral part of their editing process! Seems like you’d want your wits about you when editing? Maybe it’s liquid courage to keep something down on paper these guys needed. Maybe I’m not dazzled by the alcoholism, but I am proud of all these artistic people getting off their butts and exercising! Maybe this means I am not a complete nut for my inability to remain sedentary for over 2 hours….I assume Jane Austen was doing squats after concluding each chapter she wrote. What a visual.

For more on famous writer routines visit:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/20/daily-routines-writers/