Writing Before Dawn
I write in the very early hours of the morning. Typically I get up at around 4 a.m., have cereal, read the San Francisco Chronicle, and heat up some black coffee. Then I head to our basement, where my writing den is located. I write for the next two to three hours (I pace quite a bit), before I call it a day and get ready to go to my other job (I am an internist and have been in medical practice since 1996). I can’t listen to music when I write, though I have tried. I like to read a few lines from a favorite novel before I start writing, to sort of put me in the flow of things.
–Me, quoted on www.barnesandnoble.com, Spring 2004
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About Khaled
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and History at a large high school in Kabul. In 1976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to...
Writing
I have had time to write over the last two months with a lull in my normal work--writing for a large software company. I also have a downstairs office, but there's no way I can get up that early. I like to write in the morning, though, and through the day if time allows.
I just finished The Kite Runner--a wonderful and moving book. I hope that my first novel (now in first draft) will have a fraction of the clarity and power of this one.
Steve Schaefer - S.F. Bay Area Writer
Writing
I write best in the early morning and late evening when the short human boy and short dog boy are asleep. It is tough for me to write during the day at home. I feel like Goldilocks looking for the right chair and table. Starbucks too loud but with wi-fi, Peets too distracting with so many congregating friends. The local library is too musty. So I broadened my radius to the next towns over from Petaluma: Cotati and Rohnert Park. There are more funky cafes and a public library to die for.
The next task to truly commit to writing at least 2 hours a day. Single motherhood and medicine keep on getting into the way.
Pierrette Mimi Poinsett MD
Petaluman
“They” call me Clark
First, I would like to be honest, I think that I have been sipping on too much post modern romanticism hopes and fantasies.
I actually believe that I have enough energy to tap on demand without dying of exhaustion. I actually find the joy of getting up so early in the morning to see the spectacular sunrise while reading business and technology updates on my Blackberry, and it’s real shame that my commute home is usually too late to catch the sunset. Only in the thick of the night, I find my creative mind start to flow, all the light and lines in the photographs become one with me in the light hum of the computer. That is the only time when I can find the inspiration to do any darkroom work.
During the day, I’m the bookish guy that runs servers and networks. At night, I’m the flying boy in cape and tights. But, hey, what do I know, I’m not even 29. :P
Renjie Wang
redroom.com
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I admire you, your work, your humanity. But mostly, I admire that you are a 'morning' person. Is there some way to trick my mind-body into becoming such a one so I can write again?
In other words, what might you advise someone whose circadian rhythms are such that she finds it extremely painful to wrench herself from morning dreams, someone who wrote both her novels in the wee hours (of night, to her. same hours as your early morning ones except afterward she'd go to sleep). She cannot do that now because she must go to work to pay the bills and that job requires her being at work at 7:20 AM. No more late nights, unless she wants to die of exhaustion, which she does not.
I don't expect you to answer, of course. But, after the whinge I just posted on my author page, I felt like such a lame-arse slacker reading that you write the beautiful books you do AND practice medicine.
Maybe in my next life...
Namaste.
I hope this works ...
“For you, a thousand times over”; "Because, if it's a girl, Laila has already named her". It almost seemed like you wrote both these stories by beginning with the end. They culminate beautifully.
I was wondering if I could talk to you about a project on India’s first astronaut, Kalpana Chawla. Her journey from a small, conservative town in India to space is truly inspirational. In the backdrop of her dynamic life as a scientist, an environmentalist, an aviator, and an astronaut, is a heartfelt story of a young daughter’s attempt to regain her father’s validation by trying to excel in everything she did. In this quest for her father’s acceptance, she paid the ultimate price. Kalpana died in the 2003 Columbia disaster.
NASA is in complete support of the project and so is Kalpana’s family in India.
I have tried (in vain) Paramount, Elaine Koster, Film Rites, Budd Mackenzie, Sony Pictures - I am hoping this channel will work.
My name is Neeta Mittal. (neeta@neetamittal.com) You can check my work at www.live-area.com.
Regards,
Neeta
It's sounds like it would
It's sounds like it would make a truly inspirational story, especially for women, and not just women from India, but women everywhere.
Writing
K.D.Storm
For me I find I am at my most creative at night. Especially when I should be doing things like getting ready for work. There is something about the night that inspires me. I have tried to fight it but have come to terms with the fact that I am a night owl.
What I don't get is why when people find out you are a writer they expect you to create a piece of work in front of them at the snap of a finger. I have people who seem to think because I can write a short story or a poem that within minutes I can design a catchy slogan or even draw some form of a beautiful scence for all to behold.
I can't draw with a flip and as far as my actual writing goes I find that I even on my best days it takes at least four hours to compose a short story. That's with me keeping my butt in the chair for long periods of time and like you I find I pace alot as I write as well as chain smoke.
Early morning writing
I'm like Khaled - I like to wake up at five in the morning. My thinking is clear, the time is silent, and the mood is right. That's the way I got most of my writing done for my upcoming novel, WIFE OF THE GODS, which will be released July 14, 2009 http://www.kweiquartey.com/
Like Khaled, I'm an MD (in fact work for the same medical group he used to work for) and go into the clinic later on around 8AM on weekdays. During the weekends, I can write almost all day, and if there's a deadline, I can write for 14 hours if I have to.
Not a morning person.
I did not know of your day job till now and thought you were an English professor writing full time, so to speak.
I know of one other person who gets up at 4 AM to write.
I write between 8 PM and 1 AM.
I do get a lot of ideas in the morning though, which I write down on single sheets of paper.
Recently, (i.e. every 4-6 months I clear off my real desk top -- my computer desktop more often) and I was heartened to know I have written up a lot of the ideas and even published some of the short stories and articles.
So it goes for writers.
Kyi May Kaung.
Writing at Night
Some writers are morning person, some are night person---like me for instance. I write well at night especaily 10pm onwards. I listen first to my favorite music to get my creative juice pumping(thank God for the IPod nano, it keeps me sane) By the way...I really like the Kite Runner and I watched the movie twice. I guess...most people would say that to you but neverthelest, I did admire your work...it gives me glimpse of the middle eastern world.
I have never found anyone
I have never found anyone much compatible to me than Mariam.Thank you for creating her..
Writing as protest
As a child, I never liked being told to go to bed. Mornings didn't exactly set me on fire either, but bedtime just seemed so patronising somehow - and I was convinced that my parents only started the party after I was sent to bed. Now, as a responsible adult, I tell myself that midnight or 1am is probably the most sensible time for me to sleep if I am to be productive the next day. And, in protest against my self-imposed bedtime, I invariably pick up a pen at about 1am and start to write. Between 1am and dawn it is perfectly quiet - no phones, no kids, no unexpected visits - and I want to write precisely because I know I should be doing something else.
I admire anyone who can discipline themselves to write early in the morning - it shows great seriousness.
Writing places.
Lbraries used to be quiet places. I'm not sure when that changed. But, I no longer go to libraries to write. For me it's the dining room with, soft instrumental music to act as white noise. Often if I need inspiration - especially for a new character, Starbucks is the answer. It generally takes two "grandes with room" before I see someone who does something more interesting than stir his coffee and leave. As for time? I seem to be more creative in the late hours. Maybe it's the quiet; maybe it's the subconscious pulling from all I saw or experienced during the day.
Your day Job
I have a cousin who is also an internist. I commend you for that and for that and for making time to take time for yourself as well.
Chellé