My methods of work are briefly these: I go into my study
immediately after breakfast--usually about nine o'clock--and write
or study until three or four in the afternoon, stopping only for a
light lunch. In the early morning and late afternoon I go around
my place, giving directions to the men, and observing the
condition of vegetables, flowers, and trees, and the general
aspect of nature at the time. After dinner, the evening is devoted
to the family, friends, newspapers, and light reading. In former
years I wrote at night, but after a severe attack of insomnia this
practice was almost wholly abandoned. As a rule, the greater part
of a year is absorbed in the production of a novel, and I am often
gathering material for several years in advance of writing.
For manuscript purposes I use bound blankbooks of cheap paper. My
sheets are thus kept securely together and in place--important
considerations in view of the gales often blowing through my study
and the habits of a careless man. This method offers peculiar
advantages for interpolation, as there is always a blank page
opposite the one on which I am writing.
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