“A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning, and I have fun in the evening.” -Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho (paulocoelho on Facebook) has long been one of my writing inspirations.
His books, of near universal appeal, span from The Alchemist to the most recent Adultery and have been translated into more than 70 languages.
Few people know that The Alchemist, which has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, was originally published by a small Brazilian publisher to the tune of… 900 copies. They declined to reprint it. It wasn’t until after his subsequent novel (Brida) that The Alchemist was revived and took off.
I, for one, have always been impressed with consistent writers. Paulo, who averages one book every two years, is staggeringly consistent. As I type this, I am under the pressure of deadlines and often feel as Kurt Vonnegut did: “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
My output is erratic at best, and I wondered: how does Paulo write? What is his process? How does he think about it?
I reached out to him, and he was kind enough to reply with the audio I’ve included in the podcast. In it, he provides some gems and answers the following questions (see below), which I posed to him (I provide my own abbreviated answers in brackets)…
If you only have 3 minutes, I recommend this portion on avoiding writer’s block.
Enjoy!
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
– When on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? What does your daily schedule look like? Do you take any days off, and what determines if you’ve had a “successful” writing day?
[TIM: 2-3 hours of fasted writing in the morning to Mozart and pu-ehr tea. Success is two shitty pages of drafts.]
– How do you capture ideas that might be helpful in your writing? These days, what software and tools do you use for writing?
[TIM: Evernote, Moleskine notebooks]
– How much of your books do you visualize/outline upfront vs. writing organically piece-by-piece? In other words, how much of the story arc have you decided before you start writing? Let’s take two books as examples — The Alchemist and Aleph. Otherwise, how did your process differ for these two books?
[TIM: Though it changes as I write, I outline everything before starting. I suspect organic writing is more common in fiction.]
– What are the most common mistakes that you see first-time novelists making? Most common weaknesses?
[TIM: N/A]
– Do you base your characters on real people? Why or why not? If not, how do you develop those characters?
[TIM: N/A]
– What are the 2-3 things you personally find most invigorating or helpful when you’re stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? Do you have a team of any type (researchers, etc.) who help you?
[TIM: Rereading Bird by Bird when I doubt/loathe/chastise myself, deadlifting, and doing sprint workouts.]
Paulo offered a few additional notes and resources for further exploration:
As for the sentence in Alice in Wonderland: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
If you want more, here are three podcasts on his writing process:
1) On writing I http://youtu.be/vKBOKLF3Ul8
2) On writing II http://youtu.be/3_TJ4MIGeg8
3) Inspiration http://youtu.be/VWRmbSgS2Yw
For more musings, see Paulo’s Facebook fan page, with almost 30,000,000 fans (!).
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: If you write, what have you found most helpful for the first and last questions? Here they are, and I’d love your thoughts in the comments.
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Want to hear another podcast with a successful writer? — Listen to this podcast with Maria Popova. In this episode, she discusses being interesting, creating more time in a day, and how to start a successful blog (stream below or right-click here to download):
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Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Aleph by Paulo Coelho
- Brida by Paulo Coelho
- Adultery by Paulo Coelho
- Subscribe to Paulo Coelho’s YouTube Channel
- Like Paulo Coelho’s Facebook Fan Page
Show Notes
- When on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? [8:53]
- What does your daily schedule look like? [11:11]
- Do you take any days off? [13:13]
- What determines if you’ve had a “successful” writing day? [14:12]
- How do you capture ideas that might be helpful in your writing? [15:35]
- Why Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist [16:53]
- What software and tools do you use for your writing? [20:51]
- How much of your books do you visualize or outline upfront versus writing organically piece-by-piece? [23:37]
- Most common mistakes and weaknesses made by first-time novelists [24:24]
- Do you base your characters on real people? Why or why not? How do you develop those characters? [30:07]
- What are the 2-3 things you personally find most invigorating or helpful when you’re stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? [31:50]
