How do artists work?

 Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work gets at the question by looking at the routines of 161 people.

Each person’s routine is treated as a case study, admirably brief. I’d guess the average case is 350 words.

Everyone, of course, does it differently. For every Auden declaring that only Hitlers work at night, there is a Thomas Wolfe putting in his best hours from midnight to dawn.

I found myself making a grid with some of the obvious variables in the routines. 

There are several ways to think about time. We all know morning people and night owls. But some writers are done by lunch, while others write in two or three sessions, using meals, walks or reading as breaks. I’m looking for clues on how these folks get their second wind.

I’m also interested in another aspect of time: duration. Some writers work for hours and can’t sit down to write unless they have a big block of time. By contrast, Gertrude Stein said she was good for about 30 minutes a day.

That raises the question of the creative work that goes on before an artist sits down with her materials. People read, take walks, have coffee with friends. Something creative is going on that often ends up the art.

• Source: Mason Currey, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2025.