Writing crime fiction: You need a daily routine for your writing
Crime writers need to work every day at the same time
Writing doesn't begin at the moment you set finger to keyboard. It starts...when it starts. To write a crime novel you need to have a routine and stick to it. That means working at the same time every day.
Part of writer's block is the feeling that you could be doing something else right now. If you don't insist on writing every work day, you'll be blocked because your insecurities will push you to do something else. If you don't write at the same time every day, your insecurities will suggest a trip to the coffee shop or a tv show on the basis that you'll find time to write later.
But you shouldn't be, and you won't. The great French novelist Flaubert said, "Be regular and orderly in life, so as to be violent and original in your work."
Whenever you hear a top crime writer talk, someone always asks them about their routine. None of them ever say, I write when I feel inspired.
James Patterson tells us he gets up at 5.30 a.m. to work. (I get up at 5.30, but that's because my two-year-old daughter is demanding pancakes.)
David Liss used to start work at 4 a.m. He happened to be writing two books at the time.
Most writers get going by 9 a.m. and roll until early afternoon. Elmore Leonard used to keep himself hungry by eating a handful of nuts for lunch and writing until 6 p.m.
Certainly the morning seems to be the most popular and productive time for writers. The only writer who seems to choose the evening is George Pelecanos. Zip through this video to 23.35 to hear him talk about this:
Michael Connolly wrote his first novel at night, because he was a newspaper reporter by day and had made a deal with his wife that they wouldn't go out four nights a week so he could write.
Larry McMurtry said that a writer should work every day to maintain momentum. He added that you should stop before you felt played out and exhausted, so that you'd have the energy and appetite to get back at it the next day.
For me, the routine begins every day after I've taken my son to school. By about 8 a.m. I'm working. I keep at it until somewhere between 11 and 2. The end of the day depends on the stage of the novel. If I'm spewing out the first draft, I'll keep going because I'm desperate to get everything down. Once I'm refining the manuscript, I finish a little earlier in the day, because close-reading is relatively exhausting.
But the start of the day is not negotiable for me. It should be that way for you too.
Related articles across the web
Literary crime fiction
Elmore Leonard, crime novelist, dies
Music to murder to: crime writers on their killer soundtracks
Writing doesn't begin at the moment you set finger to keyboard. It starts...when it starts. To write a crime novel you need to have a routine and stick to it. That means working at the same time every day.
Part of writer's block is the feeling that you could be doing something else right now. If you don't insist on writing every work day, you'll be blocked because your insecurities will push you to do something else. If you don't write at the same time every day, your insecurities will suggest a trip to the coffee shop or a tv show on the basis that you'll find time to write later.
But you shouldn't be, and you won't. The great French novelist Flaubert said, "Be regular and orderly in life, so as to be violent and original in your work."
Whenever you hear a top crime writer talk, someone always asks them about their routine. None of them ever say, I write when I feel inspired.
James Patterson tells us he gets up at 5.30 a.m. to work. (I get up at 5.30, but that's because my two-year-old daughter is demanding pancakes.)
David Liss used to start work at 4 a.m. He happened to be writing two books at the time.
Most writers get going by 9 a.m. and roll until early afternoon. Elmore Leonard used to keep himself hungry by eating a handful of nuts for lunch and writing until 6 p.m.
Certainly the morning seems to be the most popular and productive time for writers. The only writer who seems to choose the evening is George Pelecanos. Zip through this video to 23.35 to hear him talk about this:
Michael Connolly wrote his first novel at night, because he was a newspaper reporter by day and had made a deal with his wife that they wouldn't go out four nights a week so he could write.
Larry McMurtry said that a writer should work every day to maintain momentum. He added that you should stop before you felt played out and exhausted, so that you'd have the energy and appetite to get back at it the next day.
For me, the routine begins every day after I've taken my son to school. By about 8 a.m. I'm working. I keep at it until somewhere between 11 and 2. The end of the day depends on the stage of the novel. If I'm spewing out the first draft, I'll keep going because I'm desperate to get everything down. Once I'm refining the manuscript, I finish a little earlier in the day, because close-reading is relatively exhausting.
But the start of the day is not negotiable for me. It should be that way for you too.
Related articles across the web
Literary crime fiction Elmore Leonard, crime novelist, dies Music to murder to: crime writers on their killer soundtracks 
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