Colm Toibin’s “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction”
Out of all authors’ responses from The Guardian’s, Ten rules for writing fiction piece, Colm Tóibín’s responses are by far my favorite.
Reading through all of the answers from the array of writers has been interesting, as there’s not really one thing in common in how they work except that they make it a priority and are writing all of the time.
His collection of rules can pretty much be summed up by saying, “Stop thinking about it so much and just do it as much as you can.”
1 Finish everything you start.
2 Get on with it.
3 Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.
4 Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
5 No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working.
6 Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the afternoon and then watch the six o’clock news and then go back to work until bed-time. Before bed, listen to Schubert, preferably some songs.
7 If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.
8 On Saturdays, you can watch an old Bergman film, preferably Persona or Autumn Sonata.
9 No going to London.
10 No going anywhere else either.
