Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

1) Write. There is no substitute. Write what you most passionately want to write, not blogs, posts, tweets or all the disposable bubblewrap in which modern life is cushioned. But start small: write a good sentence, then a good paragraph, and don’t be dreaming about writing the great American novel or what you’ll wear at the awards ceremony becaus

From that point on, not one day passed that I did not write something. On bad days, I would only type out a page or two; on good days, I would finish a chapter and then some. I mostly wrote at night, after the kids were asleep so that I could concentrate for longer than five minutes without being interrupted.

À l’inverse, une véritable concentration permet de compenser un talent capricieux ou même insuffisant. De manière générale, je me concentre sur mon travail trois ou quatre heures chaque matin. Je m’assois à ma table et me mobilise totalement sur ce que je suis en train d’écrire.

Quando escrevo um romance, imponho uma regra a mim mesmo: produzir cerca de dez páginas de 400 caracteres de manuscrito japonês por dia. No computador isso equivale a cerca de duas folhas e meia, mas, por hábito, calculo com base no manuscrito. Não escrevo mais do que isso nem quando estou inspirado, e me esforço para escrever esse tanto mesmo quan