The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-17
Nv FANNIE HURST.

The work methods or the literary
worker arc as diversified as the finger
prints of the second story worker.
Balzac wrote his novels in the garb
Of monk and Mark Twain wrote his
IN bed.
Robert Louis Stevenson loathed
Chatcaubriaud and Pierre Loi was
Chatciuhrland's literary heir.
An attempt to compare the worlday
methods OF writer's can only result m
such facet!ous and false analogies
The future man. says Mir Edison. will
spend less time In bed Willie Fitzgib-
bons who daily cells ribbons, winds his
alarm clock and slides into his daven-
port bed thanking his Power that his
lot is not with posterity.
Yet Confuclus and Wilbur Wright, both
Of whom helped 20 turn mems hearts out
ward. would have welcomed such an era.
Napoleon allotted himself minimum
amount of sleep and Roosevelt Il always
awake at the growing hour. The Broute
sisters were addicted 20 the sleep habit
and TolstOi was harl set against early
hours and coddl'nS aches and pains.
II you feel a lack 81 physical efficiency
and power take what you have and
throw o. 20 the winds, squander q lavlshly
md yous will md that a tcnfold power
has grown IN Us place. And Tolstoi went
, on. even into great age. seemingly burn
.uS the candle NJ both ends Vitality,
7 lttltn NblHt ltlllON~ltSN. tUuuItIttt Will
power. all play q big role In determining
1 the ways means and success Of an au-
/ thor
| require seven hours sleep and spend
six hours y day regardless 81 mood or
impulse a. my desk With what pain
md forced concentration | have found
! the strength To work on such schedule
only the writer VINO does not depend upon
! he white light or Inspiration can know.
That white Light out ~ heaven has
never struck me-. leaving a polished SEN
tence or fourteen carat thought AZ my
feet. In fact. | seldom feel tho impulse
/ To- write. hut tho ache TO write i usually
/ there. have never risen In the watches
| OF no night to iot down "A heaven sent
thought except on one occasion when
mi>took a poor epleram for an inspira-
ton.
Work which 7 value most has hcen
written by the frank and literal sweat Of
7 my brow. ! was aChast one day 10 dis
cover on count that I had written a more
or less triins paragraph over ITO times
to secure a certain and unimportant prose
rhythm
on short story Of some seven or
eight thousand words spend from
twtnty-uro 20 thirty Of my six hour days.
The majority of writer's for some pecu-
liar and uusc!entitic reason. work best at
tho fag end OF the day, when their ply
brain has caught It's second wind" so
10 speak
Ny own experience Is that with seven
hours sleep behind me | work best from
? o'clock through tho noon hour without
Interruption 70 midafternoon. Luncheon
saps tho blood from my brain and the
pause breaks tho momentum ~ the morn
ing.
After my workday I feel pretty much
, as II ! had emerged from a Turkish bath
plea sanity weak but full OF enthusiasm
and a new strength which can feel flow.
lnR into my veins. feeling for rocrea.
ton, music, pictures, walking, riding
gofng, the dance, as the case may he
; and above all companlonship,
All OF my working day I have talked
/, with no human. seen no human excep
tho maid. who tiptocs as she dusts my
! studio, and whom 7 entioe ny hook OF
. crook to lingcr n moment and chat witt
me.
After NIL my methods 80 drab. so color
less, so lacking In romance are not IN,
n methods that will cntlce rhe asrlrins
4 young author whose dreams Of famo over
. shadow the drcary realities Of tho bust
Z ness Of writing. realities which I thlnl
, every writer knows too we'll Yet tn,
o Joy OF creation is worth every hour o