Anne Rice kept the hours of a night owl. She read and researched during the day, then wrote in long stretches after dark, often pushing deep into the early morning while the house slept. When a book took hold of her, that's when she gave in to it.
She Wrote After Dark
Rice kept the hours of a night owl. She did her reading and vampire research in daylight, then saved the actual writing for after dark, when the house went quiet and there was nothing left to pull at her attention. The nightly sessions that produced Interview with the Vampire ran for about five weeks, and she later described that stretch as surrendering to the process. When a book had hold of her, the night was when she gave in to it.
She didn't hold herself to a strict daily word count the way some writers swear by. Her schedule bent to the work in front of her, and she was willing to chase a burst of inspiration wherever it went. When a story caught fire, she poured herself in and kept going, which is how a whole novel came together in a handful of weeks instead of a slow year of measured mornings. Some writers thrive on a fixed quota every day, a steady page or two banked before breakfast. Rice worked the other way, letting the heat of a project set the tempo and clearing room to keep up with it. A pace like that runs on intensity, and it isn't gentle. For Rice the momentum was the whole point, and she trusted it.
The Screen Full of Words
Later in her career Rice wrote on a Mac with a large monitor, and she was particular about the setup. She set her type in 14-point Courier and double-spaced it so the words filled her field of vision, and she said flatly that the bigger the monitor, the better her concentration. She edited constantly while she worked, right down to copy-editing her own lines, then admitted that some reader would still find a stray typo and decide she was a slob. The fussiness was part of the process for her.
The bigger the monitor, the better the concentration.
Anne Rice, on her writing setup
For the wider picture, her hours, her habits, and the books they produced, see the full Anne Rice writing routine.
What You Can Steal
- Write when your mind is sharpest. For Rice that was night. Find your own window and guard it.
- Keep research and drafting separate. She read by day and wrote after dark, so neither job crowded the other.
- Ride the burst. When a project catches fire, clear the calendar and go long instead of rationing yourself.
- Set up your screen to disappear. Big type, big monitor, words filling your view, fewer reasons to look away.