Nothing routine about it

Want to be an artistic success? Smoke and drink like an undergrad, take a daily walk/swim/nap, and have someone on hand to feed your every whim while keeping noisy children/guests/neighbours at bay. These are just some of the 'rituals' that are common amongst many great writers, composers, philosophers and artists, according to Mason Curry in his book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (AAKnoff; 2013).

A recent gift from my thespian brother, James, it's been a fascinating insight into the way some of the past century's 'Greats' create. It's also been a welcome wake-up call to give myself a break while writing the follow-up to my last Ghostwriter Mystery. Not only do some artists only work a few hours a day (Gertrude Stein thought 30 minutes was more than enough!), many sat, frustrated for hours in front of their typewriters, pianos, etc, achieving bugger all.

Of course many others were terrifyingly prolific, and Henri Matisse says he loved his work so much he rarely took a break, working all day every day, including Sundays, much to his models' great annoyance.

Everybody had a different body clock, some getting up at the crack of dawn, others only picking up their pencils at midnight, and almost all seemed to rely on my drug of choice, coffee, to see them through (although absinthe, cigars and amphetamines get a regular mention).

The one common factor for all, though, was ritual or, as the author points out, really just boring old ROUTINE. No matter when they start or what gets them cracking, most of the great artists had a routine that worked for them and that they stuck to, and it clearly brought results.

It got me thinking: what's my writing routine? Seems, I, too, have one, and it rarely varies, at least while I've got a book on the hop. I get up with the kids at 7:00 a.m. and get them off to school (something none of the artists had to worry about, I might note) then I have a little breakfast and coffee with my husband before he heads to his recording studio at the top of our property, and I take to my sunroom/office to answer emails, check the online news and generally faff about. By 10:00 a.m. I am into my latest novel, reading through yesterday's words, correcting a few things, then continuing on.

I break regularly for cups of coffee and tea, down a (DIY) sandwich at some point, and then wind it all up by school pick-up time at 3:00 p.m. After that, I steal the odd half hour when the boys are being calm (read: rarely), then I do a walk and some yoga, watch the TV news and enjoy dinner at the table with my family. I don't write again at night unless I'm at the end of a book and so engrossed, I simply can NOT let it go. Generally, though, too much plotting close to bedtime keeps me awake all night, so I have to release it by 5:00 p.m. to allow my brain time to chill out.

It's a routine, it seems to do the job, and it's not a bad life when I think about it. But, gee, it'd be nice if someone brought me breakfast in bed so I could loll in the sheets and dream the day away as Descartes did ...

I'd love to hear about your daily rituals or routines. Get in touch below, or drop me an email: christina.larmer@gmail.com.

And happy creating, everyone!
xo Christina

Plotting my way out of writer's block

I've never really experienced 'writer's block' but have to admit, while working on my fifth Ghostwriter mystery recently, I struggled to get the story out, labouring over every sentence, feeling bored, floundering, wondering why I bother and was there a less talented writer anywhere on this dark earth.

Then I picked up a book I bought at the last Byron Bay Writers Festival that I'd neglected to read. An anthology of Australia's leading crime writers with the disappointingly cliché title If I Tell You ... I'll Have to Kill You (edited by Michael Robotham) and relief flooded through me like a cold shower in the middle of a Melbourne heat wave.

Forget about just 'Australia' and 'crime', 20 of the world's top writers have revealed that they, too, stumble and fall, flounder and feel like frauds from time to time. Experts like Gabrielle Lord and Kerry Greenwood, Peter Corris and Shane Maloney. Gee I'm in good company!

These wonderful, candid writers offer excellent advice on getting started, on keeping going, on plotting or not plotting (to each their own), on flow, character development and how to handle the ugly ego that sits on each of our shoulders laughing regularly at our 'ineptitude'. Every writer struggles occasionally. No writer thinks it's a breeze. Not even the best of them.

Of course, deep down I know all this, I've heard it all before, but to see it at this time, as I struggle with a series that, just between you and me, has been a breeze, was a welcome buoy in what's been a turbulent and unproductive month. (Well, if you don't count the spotless kitchen and one very tidy desk.)

Just promise yourself you'll write 500 words a day, suggests Katherine Howell (writer of pacy ambo thrillers). If that doesn't work, make it 250. Before you know it, you'll be on a roll. Others advised I just put the pen down (keyboard, iPad...) and go for a stroll. Thinking, or not thinking, is just as pivotal to plotting as getting letters onto a page. (Sadly, most of us see this as a waste of time, but oh no it's not!) Almost everyone stressed the importance of character and I wondered whether I'd not developed mine enough. Was that my stumbling block?

Then I read that perhaps it's not me that's struggling. It's the plot. Yes, I thought, yes! Let's blame the blasted plot!

I put my keyboard aside and I sat out on my veranda, watching the wallabies mow the backyard as the catbirds screeched like manic babies in the poinciana above, and I looked again at my plot. Of course. That was it. My plot was all wrong. It just wasn't doing its job. There were not enough suspects. There were certainly not enough dead bodies. It was all a bit of a yawnfest. No wonder I was bored senseless, it was a senselessly boring plot. So I grabbed pen and paper and reworked the entire novel. Then I returned to my keyboard and the story began to flow.

I haven't stopped writing since.

Thanks, fellow writers, for your candour and your encouragment, but most of all, thank you for your failings, because without them, I'd still be scrubbing every square inch of my office.

Happy reading (and writing) everyone.
xo Christina