Friday, August 31, 2007

Producing words ...

... Whoever expected writers to be other than difficult people? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:02 PM

    A very interesting article, Frank. Johnson wonders how Balzac wrote for 12 hours at a stretch, but if you visit his house in Paris, you will find out how: By drinking innumerable cups of espresso. He died from finally burning out his stomach on all the coffee.

    And Dickens' compositional activities included the ability to write at a table in the parlor while entertaining friends. He'd even turn to them, throw a comment or two into the convo., and then immediately return to writing.

    Wilkie Collins' writing habits are better still: He was taking huge doses of laudanum towards the end of his life and some of his more flamboyant passages were obviously penned right after the opiate kicked in.

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