In Order to be Creative

New York Times
Akron Beacon Journal

By David Brooks
September 27th, 2014

When she was writing, Maya Angelou would get up every morning at 5:30 and have coffee at 6.  At 6:30, she would go off to a hotel room she kept –– a small modest room with nothing but a bed, desk, Bible, dictionary, deck of cards and bottle of sherry.  She would arrive at the room at 7 a.m. and write until 12:30 p.m. or 2 o'clock.

John Cheever would get up, put on his only suit, ride the elevator in his apartment building down to a storage room in the basement.  Then he'd take of his suit and sit in his boxers and write till noon.  Then he's put his suit back on and ride upstairs to lunch.

Anthony Trollope would arrive at his writing table at 5:30 each morning.  His servant would bring him

the same cup of coffee at the same time.  He would write 250 words every 15 minuets for 2 1/2 hours every day.  If he finished a novel without writing his daily 2,500 words, he would immediately start a new novel to complete his word allotment.

I was reminded of these routines by a book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, complied by Mason Currey.  Which can be ordered here:
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307273601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411871935&sr=8-1&keywords=Daily+Rituals%3A+How+Artists+Work

The vignettes remind you how hard creative people work.  Most dedicate their whole life to work.  "I cannot imagine life without work as really comfortable," Sigmund Freud wrote.

But you're primarily struck by the fact that creative people organize their lives according to repetitive, disciplined routines.  They think like artists but work like accountants.  "I know that to sustain these true moments of insight, one has to be highly disciplined, lead a disciplined life," Henry Miller declared.

"Routine in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition," W. H. Auden observed.

Auden checked his watch constantly,  making sure each task filled no more than its allotted moment.  "A modern stoic," he argued, "knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time; decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble."

People who lead routine, anal-retentive lives have a bad reputation in our culture.  But life is paradoxical.  In situation after situation, this pattern recurs: Order and discipline are the prerequisites for creativity and daring.




Charlie Dale
Sept. 27, 2014

     With that in my mind do we as writers agree with this idea of routine or do we find that if we switch it up we write more freely and more openly?  Do we have to have a room of our own?  Do we need a specific time in which to write?  Do we need to turn off everything, un-plug from everything and in the silence we sit and right?  Writing is a practice, and I do agree we need to do it daily if we are to be successful.  I would love to hear what others think, and if there is enough of a reply I will share those thoughts here.