How to Write: Sir Steven Runciman's Method

One of the pleasures of the novel I'm working on, which is set partly in the fifteenth century, is that it gives me an excuse to re-read Sir Steven Runciman. Since, in addition to being an historian, Runciman was also a lovely prose stylist, I found his answer to the question "How do you write, when you're writing a book?" quite interesting:

"Well, I do most of my writing when I’m walking about, until I get fairly clear what I want to say and how to say it. I then sit in front of an old typewriter –– I type very slowly because I’ve never been taught how to type properly––and I mutter as I go along to make it sound right. And then I –– I don’t need to make very many corrections, because I usually send that first draft to the publishers."

Now one of the things authors (myself included) will tell aspiring writers is, don't send your first draft to the publisher. You should revise and rewrite, making sure everything's perfect. As with most writing advice, however, this doesn't take into account other ways of working. The assumption is that first drafts are always bad. But Runciman's method sounds literally peripathetic. He walked around, thinking of what he wanted to say (and how to say it), and only then sat down to write. And as he wrote, he muttered the words aloud to get them to sound right. In other words, what many authors do after the fact -- or not at all -- Runciman did in before and during the writing process. 

What matters isn't how you do it but what you get done. If you've ever read Sir Steven Runciman, you know his method produced marvelous results. Here's the entire interview: