Colm Toibin’s rules of writing

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Colm Tóibín has penned these important rules of writing and i’d best pay attention.

  1. Finish everything you start.
  2. Get on with it.
  3. Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.
  4. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
  5. No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working.
  6. Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the afternoon and then watch the six o’clock news and then go back to work until bed-time. Before bed, listen to Schubert, preferably some songs.
  7. If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.
  8. On Saturdays, you can watch an old Bergman film, preferably Persona or Autumn Sonata.
  9. No going to London.
  10. No going anywhere else either.

i’m fond of number 9, no going to London. i wonder what shenanigans Colm gets up to in London and then i wonder what shenanigans i could get up to in London and, before you know it, i’m searching for airline tickets.