📝 Haruki Murakami’s Writing Routine

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.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author, best-known for his novels, essays and short stories that have become best-selling works in Japan and internationally.

Before Haruki Murakami became one of the most famous Japanese authors of all time, he was the owner of a small jazz bar called Peter Cat in Tokyo with his wife, Yoko. It was during this time that he had the desire to write a novel — inspiration struck him, of all places, when he was watching a baseball game.

It wasn’t long before Murakami began working on his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing. In between “keeping the accounts, checking the inventory, scheduling my staff, standing behind the counter mixing cocktails and cooking,” the Japanese writer would close up the jazz bar in the early morning hours then go home to write at his kitchen table.

Murakami was able to publish his first two novels like this, but he knew the approach wasn’t sustainable. “I was able to write only in spurts, snatching bits of time—a half hour here, an hour there—and, because I was always tired and felt as if I were competing against the clock, I was never able to concentrate very well,” he recalled in an interview with The New Yorker.

In 1981, Murakami and his wife closed down the jazz bar and moved out to the rural Narashino, in the Chiba prefecture, so he could dedicate all his time to writing. He also took up running, at 33 years old, as a way to stay fit while spending long hours at his desk.

“Once I was sitting at a desk writing all day I started putting on the pounds,” he said. “I was also smoking too much—sixty cigarettes a day. My fingers were yellow, and my body reeked of smoke. This couldn’t be good for me, I decided. If I wanted to have a long life as a novelist, I needed to find a way to stay in shape.”

A couple of years after Murakami took up running, he started taking part in marathons — his first one was a 5K run in 1983, then a 15K race after that. Over the years, he has competed in over twenty marathons and an ultramarathon. In his mind, the physical endurance and strength required for being a long-distance runner has a direct correlation to the mental stamina needed to be a full-time novelist.

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