The Habits of Highly Successful Writers

Emma Straub, whose Avery Anthology blog has been terrific the past few weeks, has an interview up with author Rae Meadows (Calling Out, No One Tells Everything). At the end of the interview, she asks a funny question:

ES: Lastly, is there a secret talent or obsession of yours that you'd like to share with the Avery audience? I find that most writers I know spend quite a bit of time every day not writing anything at all, and instead go bird-watching, or turn to soap operas, or or or...

RM: Before having a baby, I was a potter, but I won’t be doing much clay work for a while. Luckily there are so many more fantastic distractions to fill my time: Top Chef, Scrabulous, keeping the squirrels out of my garden, the Willy Street Co-op….okay, okay, and The Hills.

I work a lot of book events (it's kind of my thing--er, job), and at almost every event, someone in the crowd asks the writer to describe his or her writing process - what time of day, where they write, what sort of computer they have. I think all of those questions should be replaced by Emma's question. Really, do I care that you always write in a pair of Gucci loafers, or that you write exactly 252 words a day? Does anyone hear about someone's writing process and then try to duplicate it? I'd much rather hear what kind of TV shows the writer is into or how serious they are about model trains. I hope someone asks a question about The Hills at my next event.