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- 📚 Ann Patchett’s Writing Routine: “Starting a novel isn’t so different from starting a marriage.”
📚 Ann Patchett’s Writing Routine: “Starting a novel isn’t so different from starting a marriage.”
“I never seriously considered doing anything else. I sold stories, I taught creative writing and literature, I did freelance work for magazines. All of those things felt like I was making a living off of writing.”
Famous Writing Routines
November 20, 2023
Welcome to Famous Writing Routines, where we explore the daily habits, writing process, and work routines of some of the most renowned authors throughout history.
Ann Patchett is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth.
People also still talk about the muse and the lightning bolt of inspiration. Maybe it works that way for some people, but for me it’s much more a matter of sitting down and focusing.
People like to think of writers as living glamorous lifestyles. When they think of authors (especially ones who have published successful books), they picture cozy Parisian lofts or rustic Brooklyn cafes, with both settings featuring ample amounts of fresh coffee. Author Ann Patchett wants to dispel that myth.
“I’m home most of the day, alone, wearing a sweatshirt, drinking lukewarm tea, scratching the dog. It’s not so dazzling,” she admitted in an interview with Candace Moonshower. “I know there is a certain imagined glamour that is left over from Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but most of the writers I know aren’t leading that life.”
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1963, Patchett’s parents divorced at an early age and her mother remarried, uprooting the family to Nashville, Tennessee when she was just six years old. But by that age, Ann Patchett had already known that she wanted to be a writer.
“I always wanted to do it for a living,” she said. “I never seriously considered doing anything else. I sold stories, I taught creative writing and literature, I did freelance work for magazines. All of those things felt like I was making a living off of writing.”
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