Paulo Coelho de Souza (born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist, best known for his novel The Alchemist.
In this interview, he served a plethora of hints about his daily routine once he is in a writing mode.“First I say that I’m going to write as soon as I wake up. Then I postpone and postpone and start feeling guilty and horrible and feel that I don’t deserve anything. Then I say, OK, today I’m not going to write. Then I write just to not feel guilty, and I’m going to write the first sentence. Then once I’m off the ground, the plane takes off…when I’m writing, I wake up around 12 o’clock because I write until 4 in the morning. Only two weeks.Then of course, I have to make the corrections and do another draft. I have to correct the second draft. So the first draft has, let’s say, one-third more pages than the final draft. So I start cutting.”
“A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning, and I have fun in the evening.” -Paulo Coelho
What kind of person Paulo Coelho is in everyday life? ( Richard, in Twitter)
I’m first and foremost an “Internet addict”. I spend 3 hours every day talking to my readers through social communities: this blog, Facebook and Twitter.
For the past two years, I decided to stop giving interviews – I am tired to repeat the same questions over and over again. Of course this is not a final decision, and I can eventually accept an invitation – but my mailbox is full of requests that my office answers with a single word: “busy”.
I also have small rituals that I need to accomplish (at home or travelling): walking in the morning, reading the news in the internet, talking to my friends and my wife.
Of course, I also live my life in a way that every day will present new challenges and unexpected things. I don’t like to have everything planned beforehand.
This is mainly because:
a] It’s pointless : life is impossible to predict
b] It’s the very salt of life – I don’t want to know what’s going to happen.
Sources:
- https://tim.blog/2016/04/23/paulo-coelho-the-alchemist/
- https://paulocoelhoblog.com/2014/06/25/paulos-everyday-life/
- https://www.samosho.com/daily-routines-10-famous-writers-toni-morrison-kazuo-ishiguro