Your Writing Day

[Chad]

Russ, thanks again for a great Q&A. And for being a regular eGullet member. It is indeed a wonderful thing to share ideas and opinions with you and Paula Wolfert and Tony Bourdain and Grant Achatz and all of the other pros who contribute here.

It also helps a lot when talking to other people about eGullet. When I mention that I hang out on a food-related Internet site, I get that slightly pitying look reserved for the socially inept. The complete Star Trek video collection and Dr. Who t-shirt are simply assumed.

However, when they know who some of the regulars are the mood quicky shifts, and I can usually get them to come take a look. A little shameless name dropping can be a good thing.

To the heart of the matter. I've recently gone back to writing full time after a lengthy stint in the marketing/advertising world. Why? A chronic fear of making money, I suspect. That and my wife is willing to put up with it for the time being. Good enough for me.

I know you work at home. Have you developed any tricks for keeping focused throughout the day? Do you have a set routine? Structured writing times? A way to deal with the guilt associated with the completely necessary but hard to explain staring-out-the-window time? A good excuse for not having brushed your teeth by 11:00?

Thanks,

Chad

Edited October 15, 2003 by Chad (log)

[russ parsons]

Uh, here it is after 10 and I still haven't brushed my teeth. I'm beginning to take this personally.

When I started working from home (I need to point out that this is mostly: I hit the office at least once a week and more often when I have a story in process. I put in full office days the last three days [don't cry for me kathy purvis]).

Whoops, got lost there. Anyway, when I started working from home, I worried about structure because I am by nature a procrastinator who is not satisfied to merely put off to tomorrow, but to put off putting off... To my surprise, it wasn't a problem. I do have my rituals. I get up in the morning and fix breakfast for my wife. I finish the paper. I exercise and take the dogs for a walk and then as soon as I get home I immediately start on the day's writing (which I've been rehearsing all morning and, usually, most of the night). It's only when I've finished what I can do there that I sign on and pick up e-mails, etc.

Because I only write once a week, at most, I have a larger structure for doing stories as well. On recipe-driven stories, I'll usually spend the first part of the process testing the recipes and getting them right before I start to write. Actually working with the ingredient/dish/whatever and having that fresh in my mind is a great boon to writing well. Once that's done, I'll start my research. That may be nothing more than looking up statistics on the Web, or it may mean pulling some books and getting background. Or I might search out some people who have special knowledge, whether it be chefs (not as likely) or farmers or scientists (much more likely). Then I write. I just start and write until it's finished. Then I go back and rewrite the top. And then I rewrite the middle and then I rewrite the ending. And then I repeat ad nauseum. One thing that I've found to be a great advantage to writing at home is that I now take the time to print out the story when I think it's close to ready and read it aloud. I'll do this three or four times. At a certain point, I inevitably realize that I'm no longer improving the story but I'm just fucking with it (sorry girls), and that's when I file.

For longer pieces like today's, the research takes on a life of its own. I am a complete over-researcher. I go to libraries, I hit the Web, I talk to everyone I can think of who might know something about the subject. One of the benefits of my luxurious writing schedule is that I don't feel the need to have every bit of research accounted for in the story. I really think that in big stories, the research should be like an iceberg, where only 10% is visible but you can sense the rest of it being there. I think that's what writing with authority really means.