Henry Miller shares timeless advice on focus and routine for wordsmiths
The prolific author insisted on working on one thing at a time and following a program rather than your mood.
While drafting his first novel, Tropic of Cancer, in 1932, Henry Miller stuck to a regimented writing routine that kept him productive and sane, as he explained in his 1964 book, Henry Miller on Writing.
Though his books are each stand-alone classics, his memoir is brimming with timeless advice for wordsmiths. With insights touching on productivity to reading habits, below are his full11 tips for writers.
1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’
3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can’t create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8. Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.
Notably, Miller maintained his daily routine even when he didn't feel like it. Similar to what John Steinbeck did, Miller relied on the discipline of showing up, day after day, for productivity.
The role of discipline in art
It wasn't motivation or whimsy that pushed Miller to write, but his reluctance to miss days of work (which is also the approach I took to write two bestselling books).
In studying great writers, a pattern of self-doubt emerges. Few bygone legends had the confidence to believe in their own genius, but as a result, they leaned heavily on discipline. Something that wouldn't falter even when they felt their intellect would.
The same thing that allows professional athletes to excel at the highest level is what has always propelled writers forward in their craft. Chalking up success to genius or talent is a fool's task, and the literary giants did nothing of the sort.
Still, it is in that discipline Miller tapped into some of the deepest wells of his creativity. Persistence, he said, was the thing that allowed art to eventually emerge.
In a letter to Anaïs Nin, he said a creative person's focus would best be put into daily efforts, rather than some distant outcome like commercial success, because a resolute dedication to the craft is what allows for milestones to emerge on their own.
The reality is always there, and it is preceded by vision. And if one keeps looking steadily the vision crystallizes into fact or deed. There is no escaping it. It doesn’t matter what route one travels.
Complement this article with Kurt Vonnegut’s advice on prioritizing simple language in writing, Ernest Hemingway’s tips to master the craft, and John Steinbeck's notes from writing his Pulitzer-winning epic novel.