To write according to Virginia Woolf, one needs only pen and paper. Jeffrey Archer said in a book launch in Bangalore, India, writing needs talent and perseverance. Even if one does not have talent, it will do, but it certainly needs perseverance. Maya Angelou used to check into a hotel at 6.30 in the morning with a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards and a bible and wrote 10-12 pages until 2 in the afternoon. In the evening she edited them down to 2-4 pages. Victor Hugo wrote without cloths, Mark Twain, Proust, Capote wrote lying in bed or couch, Hemingway wrote standing upright. There are authors like Faulkner, Joyce, Poe, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas who had the reputation of being alcoholic but did they write while intoxicated?! If someone has the reputation of loving the booze, isn't it quite obvious in some ways that maybe they wrote a few great works while inebriated! Who cares, we at least have those great works to read at night when the whole world sleeps, dreams or procreates!
So what does one need to write? Virginia Woolf was right, one needs pen & paper, but one needs time too. And yes, Angel of the House always comes to make one feel guilty, if one is a woman.
Jeffrey Archer was right, it needs talent and perseverance, without discipline nothing is possible to achieve. But one cannot totally pooh poohed talent and only rely on perseverance and discipline.
Maya Angelou's method is very unique but observed by other authors too. In a hotel room far far away from your known habitat gives one a "tabula rasa" one will feel to write is the only thing she has to do. And if one is a woman, then there is no fear of the constant reminder of her domestic chores, wifely and motherly duties. A hotel room helps to disengage oneself from everything. There he or she is left with just one identity, an author.
Twain, Proust, Capote wrote lying down, maybe because it gave them the ultimate relaxed mind, and only then they could have able to think. People think best, people let their imagination fly only when they are lying in bed, sometime when one just about to drift into sleep, best thought pops up, so why not!
Victor Hugo wrote without cloths so that he couldn't leave house, or maybe because he wanted to be stripped down off his other identities and to be left with just one true one.
Hemingway wrote standing upright. Maybe he didn't want to be relaxed. It gave him a strong grip on his creation. When some people watch a great movie or get close to a great incident in a book they stand, they sit up. Maybe that was his reason. Or maybe he was just an upright person all together!
Authors who write while drunk, are giving me real headache to find out reason for them to do so. Maybe they wanted to be uninhibited. Also under influence one actually feel like his or her real self, finds their true identity. Somebody somewhere said always have a glass of wine before going to a job interview, that is the only way to feel like your true self. Also there is again that relaxed angle. And who doesn't know when you are drunk you say or do things that are otherwise unimaginable. In other twisted words, your imagination run wild. And imagination is the key ingredient in writing, unless one is writing an autobiography, biography or a semi autobiography or loosely based on real events...okay you get the gist!
To sum it up, one needs pen, paper, time, talent, perseverance, discipline, no distraction, feeling absolutely him/herself or do not at all feeling him/herself, a bed or a table, alcoholism or sobriety. But problem with me is lack of motivation and pure lethargy. I'm very good at thinking. But feel if only instantly my thoughts were written down somewhere automatically, it would have been so good. Only one thing can motivate me to write like a writer (in the conventional sense!) is if already one of my books is published. I know it will give me the necessary impetus to write. Is there anybody there who thinks like this?
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