W is for Writing Tips from a Pulitzer Prize winner!

Happy Wednesday, all!!   Lucky me ~ "W" falls on Wednesday, which is typically the day I dispense all sorts of writerly goodness, outside of the A-Z.  So, of course, today you get writing tips!

Actually, it's more a look into the writing process of 2011 Pulitzer Prize  for Fiction Writing winner - Jennifer Egan.  I haven't had a chance to read her book - A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD - which won her this prestigious writing award, but I'll definitely have to add that to my TBR list.

Here's a copied recap of some of her tips from the Writer's Digest article.  For the entire recapped interview and links to the full interview (and pic source), please go HERE.

Inspiration:

I don’t really know where my ideas come from. I start with a time and a place. That’s what I need to get started, and an intellectual question2.

Process:
-Start with a time and a place.
-Be excited/surprised by the process
-Avoid going backward instead of forward (so simple, and yet, so unyieldingly difficult).
-Start with as little as possible

Fiction-writing I only do by hand. Only.

Output:
I usually try to write five to seven original pages a day.

First drafts:
A first draft takes about 10% of the total writing time, but in terms of importance it’s probably 50%.

Outlining:
I don’t outline initially. I outline everything in revision. Some of my revision outlines are 50 pages long.

Revision:
Usually my books go through three or four big drafts, with each big draft reflecting 20 rewrites of each individual part. When I get to a full new draft, it means I’ve made enough changes to all the parts that I’m willing to look at it as a whole.


Interesting, Interesting!  I wonder if I should invest in some yellow notepads...hmm.  :)  Tell me, do you see any of your writing habits here?