I got linked to the original WSJ article from Alexander Chee’s most excellent Koreanish blog. Chee’s piece was titled, Orhan Pamuk Writes By Hand. Hillary Mantel, Before Her Coffee. The comments are as enlightening as what Chee transcribed from the WSJ.
What’s beautiful and comforting about what Chee quotes is this bit about Dan Chaon:
During the early stages of writing, he carries a pocketful of cards with him wherever he goes; as they accumulate, he stores them in a card catalogue that he bought at a library sale. It often takes two years before something resembling a novel takes shape. He eventually transcribes the cards onto the computer and writes furiously from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
I don’t know Chaon, but it certainly makes me feel like less of a freak that I get my best, clearest writing done as the lateness of one day leans into the earliness of the next. I find it hardest to write in the early morning hours. And by early morning hours I mean the ones that come after I’ve awakened from sleep.
ADDENDUM: And for the record, like Hilary Mantel, I sometimes get my best ideas while I’m taking a shower. (Oh for a waterproof notebook.) It’s also where I most often find myself working on lines for whatever show I happen to be in at the moment.