How Does Agatha-Winning Mytery Author Lori Rader-Day Write?
Morning pages, making your own rules, enjoying the process
I’ve been a fan of Lori Rader-Day’s books for years but from the start of our conversation for the Simply Write podcast, I knew I liked her too, the person behind the prose. She’s thoughtful, authentic, and honest about everything from why she decided to leave her day job to write full-time, the self-doubt that she deals with despite a Big 5 publishing contract and multiple award-winning books, and her appreciation of gel pens.
This is a fun and interesting conversation. And if you have a novel in mind, her comments on process and revision make good sense.
And this week, I’m going to give you all taste of what paid subscribers receive with a short Bonus Clip from my interview with Lori Rader-Day talking with me about the process and “rules” around writing.
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Should You Write Every day?
Yep. I think it’s useful.
Do I do it?
Absolutely every day?
Nope.
But life works better when I do. It’s easier to keep momentum, follow a thread, develop a character, unravel complex information and write it in a way that makes sense.
But, sometimes I need the break, to let ideas ferment and foment and work themselves out before I put them down.
If I’m not writing, I’m usually thinking about something I’m writing. Developing the twist in my head, considering a point I want to make. A structure that might work better.
If writing every day works well for you. Do that. If it doesn’t, don’t.
How you do the work is up to you. The important thing, I think, is to know your process and then to set up your life and schedule to accommodate that process.
Writers who write and publish frequently know what helps them to get the draft out, make the revisions and continue on during the days they don’t feel like it.
They understand which hours they are most focused and creative and they work then. Right now my best writing time is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., so I make sure I’m in the chair at the desk during that time.
Others love to push through the nights. One writer I know starts writing at 4 a.m. Necessity might change your process. When my daughter was a baby, I wrote whenever I could fit it in, sometimes after nursing in the middle of the night, sometimes just before dinner when my husband got home. Sometimes, not at all.
Now she’s older, I get my hours done mostly in the middle of the day. Unless I’m behind and on deadline or otherwise freaking out about getting the work finished. Then, I write until the work is done. Because it is my job and I am a professional.
It used to be everything had to be just so before I could work. Now I can write even if my hair is on fire. But my preferred time is mid-morning. I know that about myself and I schedule everything else around that.
Daily Words
I have written a page or more in a notebook—actually several notebooks now— for 1,783 days straight. These are my morning pages, and I follow the guide according to artist and writer Julia Cameron .
This isn’t work that I intend to publish or even show anyone else. It’s more of a brain dump for me. A no-rules way to comment on the day, or the writing or football, or what my daughter said to me last night.
I do this longhand, with a fast writing pen and a quad-ruled notebook. You can use anything. Find something you like and write in it. It doesn’t have to be pretty, and my writing in these pages is rarely legible, but the ink shines and the paper scratches and it feels right to put words down without any rules.
It’s a kind of freedom that primes me for the work ahead but also grounds me in the world of words and ideas and details.
Renowned teacher Natalie Goldberg teaches a similar process that she calls Writing Practice.
Basically, my goal is just to write longhand for a few pages without stopping, without considering grammar or ideas or rules, or all the other things I need to get done. I just let the words rip. Then, I put the notebook away until the next morning. I don’t read it.
There is no pressure for the writing to be good, or for sentences complete, it is just a physical act for me, or writing with pen and paper on a page. That’s why when I’m asked if I write every day I say yes.
I don’t write well every day. I don’t write to publish every day. I’m not always working on my to-publish projects every day.
But, I do write my Morning Pages every day. The practice grounds me, helps me process the world, and releases mental clutter so. Gets me going.
If you want to try it, pick up a notebook you like, grab a smooth-flowing pen—maybe a gel tip or fountain—and write for 15 minutes without stopping. Or let the ink flow for three pages without letting your hand stop.
It might be hard to let it all hang out in the beginning. Trust the process. Try it for a couple of weeks before you judge it. Then decide if you’ll continue on.
It’s a privilege to be a working writer. But it is also hard and demanding.
Find the time and process, tools, and habits that help you do the work. Make it interesting and fun and meaningful. Then do those things.
And simply, write.
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