Writing Skillet #3 - 5 Writing Routines of Modern Fantasy Authors

As time goes on, I only grow more and more serious about my writing career, and something that inspires me is hearing about other authors’ writing routines. Even if those writing routines are completely unattainable for me, it gets my gears turning and gets me thinking about how I can implement a writing routine. Basically, it inspires me to be consistent, which is a quality I struggle with. Anyway, I thought I would do some research and collect information on a few modern fantasy authors and their writing routines. I hope you find this encouraging and interesting. One website I discovered while researching was writingroutines.com, which is a super interesting collection of author interviews that I will definitely return to in the future.

First things first, let’s have breakfast. Below, you see the two books I’m currently reading, as well as my delicious protein wrap with salsa and scrambled eggs. I’m very big on protein in the morning, and by now if I don’t eat it, I am shaky and weak by ten. So I like to shove a bunch of protein down my gullet right away.

1. Sarah J Maas

I found a good interview with Sarah on bookandlatte.com. Now SJM (as I believe her fans call her) has become a huge success, and while her books just aren’t my style – I don’t really enjoy romance or anything even on the edge of erotica, that’s just personal – I did gobble up “Throne of Glass” in like two days. That’s the only SJM book I have read and it was like cotton candy.

Sarah says that she tries to write daily unless she’s on a planned break, which she tries to schedule often so she doesn't burn out. She tries to write at least 1,000 words a day. She writes at a desk in her home office, and she mentions her Star Wars posters, which gives her points in my book. Now, the interesting part I found was that she says she keeps a mirror across from her while she’s writing, so she can glance up and act out facial expressions and body language so she can describe them correctly.

2. Fonda Lee

Fonda Lee is a fantasy author best known for Jade City, which came out in 2017 and then won the World Fantasy award the following year. I haven’t read this yet, but it’s on my TBR. I got her answer from writingroutines.com.

Fonda (is it a thing that when you’re published it sounds wrong to say only your first name?) prefers to have 3-5 hours at a time to dive into her work. She will write at home about half the time and go to either the library or coffee shop for the other half. She said she needs noise-cancelling headphones and a hot tea. While she doesn’t have a daily schedule, she sets short and medium term goals, for instance, she might tell herself she’s going to finish two chapters this week and then block off time in the week to meet those goals.

3. Brandon Sanderson

Brandon’s routine comes from his website. Ashamedly, I’ve only read one book by him so far, and I think it’s because everyone loves him and there is so much hype around him now that I’m just stupid and it turns me off. But Skyward is on my list for this year.

Brandon writes every day and gives himself a wordcount goal for that day. Usually it’s a minimum of 2,000 words or ten pages. He says, “some days I write for 4-5 hours, some days I write 14-15 hours. Pretty consistently I’ve done around 300,000 words a year for the last few years.” Not surprising. But usually, his schedule is writing from 12-4 pm, and then again from 10pm-4am. One thing he does, which I remember him talking about on his podcast, is he sets aside one day a week for business matters like emails, blogging, etc, so he can get it all out of the way that day without letting it eat his writing time. He said something I really resonate with too: “Most writers write twenty-four hours a day, I write twenty-four hours a day. I go to the gym, I’m thinking about what’s happening with m next book. If I’m going to bed I’m planning for the next day. When I get up, I check my email, start writing.”

4. Samantha Shannon:

I found Samantha’s answer on her author website. I just started her massive book, “The Priory of the Orange Tree,” and it’s been on my TBR for almost two years. I probably would have gotten intimidated and removed it from my TBR as I’ve heard some “meh” reviews on it, but here’s the thing: I bought it while traveling in Australia, and it was a used book that still cost about $17. I really, really wanted to read it at the time, and so, while I will never complain on the price of a book since I know all that goes on behind the scenes to publish a book, it was still a lot of money for me to drop on one used book and then, I had to mash it into my suitcase and cart it back home. On top of that, it’s now a souvenir from Australia. So all of that kept it on my TBR. I started it the other night, and I was actually surprised how quickly I fell into the story. I am so enjoying it!

Anyway, side trail. Here’s what Samantha says about her writing routine. She says, “I get up in the morning between 7 and 8 and make myself a big cup of coffee, check my emails and do social media or blogging, and start writing around noon. I tend to write slowly but solidly until quite late at night. I aim to sleep at around 11 pm but often the writing urge will kick in when it turns dark. And I’ll end up writing past 1 am. I usually write for at least 7 or 8 hours a day, if not more.”

5. Naomi Novik:

Naomi’s answer comes from an interview she did with Christopher Paolini on Tor.com, posted on September 28, 2020.

Naomi said she has an office space to write in, and she had a really interesting comment about that. She said, “I consciously decided to get a different space to work in when my daughter was born. Because she’s older now, she’s nine so she’s not a little kid anymore, but it’s still quite hard for a child to get the idea that your parent is physically present but somehow not available to you. I think that feels quite rejecting to a child and so I didn’t want to have that experience of saying, “I can’t, I’m working.” I try to arrange it so that when I’m home she can come to me and interrupt me.”

I resonated with that, because I’ve had the same concern. Maybe I’ll record a similar episode to this just with information from authors who are mothers. I have one child who’s still under a year so right now I can stay home with her, which is great, but I know soon she’ll be talking and walking and if I ever do become a full time writer, I’ll have some decisions to make.

Now, I hope this is inspiring to you and not depressing. I really don’t want it to have that effect. Full time writers can afford to spend more time writing every day, and someone like you or me may not, because...we aren’t making any money off this, it’s just a hobby at this point. The non-writers in our lives will probably never understand how serious it is, but that’s a topic for a different episode. Also, if you are a parent, particularly if you’re a mother, that is an added responsibility. I have even more time than others with kids because not only do I have only one kid, but I am staying home with her right now. Everyone is different, and as long as we remember that and can cheer each other on, we’re gonna be okay.

Keep writing!