How to write

It comes as no surprise, or news, to readers of this blog that I am on the, I hope, home straight of my book on the history of ancient Rome. This post is not to give an update about chapter 7 (for which see here), but to wonder more generally about how (elegant) non fiction is actually written.

I have on various occasions complained that academic autobiographies give you very little insight into the process of actually writing.They spend an awful lot of time on the "networking" and what sex there was (I am thinking of K J Dover, here, and the famous wanking at the view from the top of a mountain that squeaked into his autobiography), but they spend precious little time on working out how the ideas in the head ever ended up as readable words on the page. That is what seems to me to be the most interesting part of the process.

What are the conditions for writing something that is actually interesting, and -- more to the point --not wrong?

Part of that is down to mates. I rely on one or two people who, I suspect, will be glancing at this blog, to tell me the truth. When they say it is dull, or that it reads too much like some lecture, or whatever, I pay attention. It takes a clever and supportive reader to say... "why don't you start that chapter where you end it?". And it's usually right.

But part of it is down to little rituals. For example, I have found, friendly to the environment or not, that I like to write in a room with a nice coal fire burning. Ok it takes a bit of time to tend, but it gives you live company that doesn't actually try to talk to you (perfect combo). And then there is the old-fashioned notebook beside you. I like to scrawl down in handwriting every big point I want to get into the chapter before I open the laptop. I like to list, scrawl out, reorder etc, all in long hand

Alcohol is a bit trickier. I have to say that by 6 o clock, I often (like this evening) get the feeling that a good glass of wine would help the next sentence hugely. The truth is that one glass does, but the second (which the first prompts) certainly does not.

Overall, I guess it is time that really does it. To be honest it's really is impossible to write more that 1500 good words a day. When people say to me.. oh I wrote 3000 words today, I feel both crushed (what, 3000 words?) and smug (I bet they werent any good). They may be scriptural geniuses, or more likely self-deluded.

But as you see I am pressing on, and if I could average 1000 words a day, I'd be home and dry.