Writing Habits of Successful Authors

Forbes has a nice brief run-down of authors' habits.

For instance...

• Take notes - Norman Mailer always carried a little notebook. I’d see him at parties or on the streets of Manhattan or Provincetown muttering to himself, reading something or talking earnestly to someone, and in the middle of it all he’d whip out a tiny spiral-bound notepad and begin to write something down.

I took Claude Brown to visit Norman once and he spotted the notebook. From then on, Claude always carried one too. In fact at Claude's funeral, they put one of his notebooks in his hand before closing the casket.

• Rewrite 40 times - Tom Robbins says he does that, and I believe him. When he was writing Jitterbug Perfume he’d read me passages out loud to see how it sounded, then go back and write it again. I’ve never met a writer who spent more time polishing his metaphors.