Socrates and Democritus would often stand motionless, for days and days, thinking about the answer to one burning question. Schiller, the poet and playwright, could not write without first pulling open a desk drawer, then smelling a lump of rotten apples, which reminded him of his childhood home. Hemingway wrote standing up. Voltaire wrote lying down, using the naked back of his mistress as a desk. Though all writers disagree on techniques or habits, many writers recommend some simple principles for guiding their own writing, and for teaching writing students to express themselves with clarity and power.
Writers write best about the subjects they care deeply about.
Writers imagine one ideal reader when they write. Writers who grasp the process can write about any subject, and in every genre. Gather Original Ideas 2. Hours and even days might be consumed in searching for the one and only perfect word. Modern theory favors a much less restrained approach to writing.