Zadie Smith: 10 Good Writing Habits

Zadie Smith: 10 Good Writing Habits
Zadie Smith rocked the literary world in her late twenties with her novel White Teeth, a look into various lives in contemporary multicultural London. She followed this up with the novels The Autograph Man and On Beauty, and she is also a leading light in literary criticism. She is considered one of the freshest and most ambitious voices of her generation.
10 Good Writing Habits
  1. When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
  2. When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
  3. Don't romanticise your “vocation." You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no “writer's lifestyle." All that matters is what you leave on the page.
  4. Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.
  5. Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
  6. Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.
  7. Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.
  8. Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
  9. Don't confuse honours with achievement.
  10. Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand—but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.

Comments

majoleeka said…
Jenny I just came across your blog and enjoyed listening to Tracy Chapman she has always been a favorite of mine too. Was able to work in my sketch book and journal some thoughts free flowing. But then I found the short article about Zadie Smith. In early 2000's I watched White Teeth on tv(before I cut the cable) I think it was on PBS. It was a fascinating series.Nice that I can now have a name with the writing. I imagine that her books are as enjoyable to read,so I will have to see about getting a hold of some of her books to read.
Karen Baker-majoleeka.com

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