James Patterson publishes more books than most writers finish in a lifetime, and the engine behind it is a plain, early routine. He's up before six, writing in pencil, seven days a week. The pace almost never breaks.
The 5:30 Start
Patterson's day begins early and stays orderly. He gets up around 5:30, sorts out the house, and does a little writing, often roughing out an outline for the day ahead. Around seven he heads outside and walks a golf course for about an hour, by himself, then comes back and writes through until roughly eleven or noon. He keeps this going seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, and the early hours do most of the real work.
I pretty much write seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. I'll get up around 5:30, put my house in order, write a little bit, maybe an outline for that day.
James Patterson, The Daily Beast, 'How I Write'
Pencil, Not a Keyboard
For all the volume, Patterson writes by hand. He drafts in pencil and doesn't use a computer, then hands the pages to an assistant to type, or dictates them over the phone. He works on widely spaced pages so there's room to cross things out and scribble new material between the lines, which lets him turn a marked-up page into the next draft quickly. The tools are old-fashioned. The output is enormous.
A lot of that output is outlines. Patterson has said he writes roughly 900 pages of outlines a year, most of them three or four drafts deep, which is how he feeds the co-authors who help turn those outlines into finished books.
Why He Never Stalls
Patterson says he doesn't get writer's block, and his fix is structural rather than a matter of willpower. He keeps around a dozen projects live at once, each with its own pile of pages, so when one stops moving he switches to another and keeps working. Momentum comes from always having somewhere else to go.
For the wider picture, see the full James Patterson writing routine.
What You Can Steal
- Start early and protect it. Patterson does his first writing before the day can fill up with anything else.
- Show up daily. Seven days a week keeps every project warm and moving.
- Remove friction, not modernity. Pencil and paper work for him because they get out of the way.
- Keep several projects going. When one stalls, switch to another instead of staring at the wall.