Rain and Twain

I spent most of my weekend with the main man in my life, Mark Twain, and since I’m in the midst of a Life on the Mississippi binge write, I’m applying chapter 11 to Twain: weirdo, grump, funny man, smarty pants, wearer of white suits.

Regular time and place for writing: Twain’s sister in-law lived on a farm in Elmira, New York where Twain’s family spent summers. Aunt Sue actually built Twain a little writing outpost—an octagonal study—on her property where he could write in peace. The farm sits at a higher altitude than the surrounding area, so visitors actually had to climb to Twain on his writing mountain if they wanted to bother him.

Make time for regular writing, brief daily sessions: Twain’s a prime example (even better than Louis L’Amour, I think) of a writer who used whatever small snatch of time he had to write. For Life on the Mississippi, he began conceptualizing the project over a decade before he began, and because he wrote so regularly, I’ve been able to trace the ten-minute “planful prewrites” (though he’d probably have words with Boice over that expression) he made about Life over the years. Not sure if this is a good or bad argument for writing in small doses, because it did take him over ten years to begin the book.

Social Contingencies: Twain exchanged constant letters with his friend William Howells—many of them about projects he was working on. Nice to have a buddy, even more so if that buddy is an editor at the Atlantic, like Howells was.

Start without inspiration: Twain wrote the last half of Life on the Mississippi totally uninspired—his daughters were sick, he was sick, his house was under quarantine and his book contract loomed. Over the course of writing Life, Twain referred to it as: wretched, God-damned, burden, struggle, and so on. Critics have used Twain’s own words on the book to discredit its composition, but I think it’s a triumph of uninspired writing that he managed to pull off the project without feeling like it.

Chart your progress: I don’t think Twain would have been into this. If he had been, there would be more bar graphs in Life.