Note: More writing methods detailed in Rivka Galchen’s, “From the Pencil Zone: Robert Walser’s Masterworklets” in Harper’s Magazine. She spends most of her time writing in bed (like, noted in her post, Edith Wharton), which seems a whole lot more enjoyable than scratching out a thought deep into the (probably frigid New England) night, lumbago setting in, the sound of metal balls rolling across the floor.

Here she describes her years through the ‘writing room,’ from a cramped New York loft to a dark bedroom in Wisconsin to a Malibu Peach-painted office in her new house. Emma Straub probably writes like most of us: anywhere, as long as it’s quiet, comfortable (pillows seem to be a favorite), and there’s a laptop at her fingertips. For these writers, the method was to write at the precipice of some strained psychological or physical state (deprivation).Īnd writers these days? Less strained, at least according to responses to What’s your ritual? posted on Big Other.

Very differently, Balzac would slug down something like thirty cups of coffee, masturbate until he was about to orgasm, halt, write, and repeat. He would fall asleep, the balls would hit the floor: Ben would wake, snatch up a pen, and begin writing whatever rushing thought filled his head that somnolent moment. With honesty, humor, and elegance, The Secret Miracle gives both aspiring writers and lovers of literature a master class in the art of writing.Supposedly Benjamin Franklin, after depriving himself of sleep, would sit with metal balls in his hands, his arms dangling at his sides. Paul Auster, Roddy Doyle, Allegra Goodman, Aleksandar Hemon, Mario Vargas Llosa, Susan Minot, Rick Moody, Haruki Murakami, George Pelecanos, Gary Shteyngart, and others take us step by step through the alchemy of writing fiction, answering everything from nuts and bolts queries Do you outline? to perennial questions posed by writers and readers alike: What makes a character compelling?įrom Stephen King s deadpan distinction between novels and short stories Novels are longer and have more s t in them to Colm Toibin s anti romanticized take on his characters They are just words to Jos Manuel Prieto s mature perspective on the anxieties of influence Influences are felt or weigh you down more when young, every page contains insights found nowhere else. The world’s best contemporary writers from Michael Chabon and Claire Messud to Jonathan Lethem and Amy Tan engage in a wide ranging, insightful, and oft surprising roundtable discussion on the art of writing fictionĭrawing back the curtain on the mysterious process of writing novels, The Secret Miracle brings together the foremost practitioners of the craft to discuss how they write.

The Secret Miracle by Daniel Alarcón