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E.B. White
E.B. White
E.B. White's Writing Routine:
E.B. White's Writing Routine:
"I never listen to music when I’m working. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all. On the other hand, I’m able to work fairly well among ordinary distractions. My house has a living room that is at the core of everything that goes on: it is a passageway to the cellar, to the kitchen, to the closet where the phone lives. There’s a lot of traffic. But it’s a bright, cheerful room, and I often use it as a room to write in, despite the carnival that is going on all around me.
In consequence, the members of my household never pay the slightest attention to my being a writing man — they make all the noise and fuss they want to. If I get sick of it, I have places I can go. A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper."
Charlotte's Web, 1952
Read September 2024
Why I Chose E.B. White:
Why I Chose E.B. White:
I only recently read Charlotte’s Web, which is slightly embarrassing as someone who has loved reading since I was very young. It did not disappoint, and I ended up reading it in one sitting at Barnes & Noble on a lazy Saturday. It follows a pig named Wilbur who was rescued by a kind young girl named Fern. Wilbur befriends a spider named Charlotte, who ultimately works to help Wilbur escape being killed by his owners. It is, first and foremost, a story of friendship, but it also covers themes like growing up and dealing with one’s greatest fears.
White’s story is targeted towards children, but it appeals to everyone. I have always admired authors who write novels for children but refuse to dumb down their storylines/usage of language for their audience, and he is the perfect example of this. His story sticks in a reader’s head, which I’m sure is a large reason why Charlotte’s Web has become such a classic throughout many generations. He embraces his imagination by creating unique stories, and his language is something readers continue to turn to no matter their age.
Passage from E.B. White's Writing:
Passage from E.B. White's Writing:
"'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that'" (White, Charlotte's Web).
Writing Data:
Writing Data:
12
12
how I felt about the quality of my writing over the course of the four days, out of a possible maximum of 20 points
673.25
673.25
average words written per day
52
52
average minutes spent writing per day
How the Experiment Went
How the Experiment Went
E.B. White’s advice about writing had a part in inspiring me to create this writing experiment. I was specifically moved by his insistence that writers must learn to write under less-than-ideal conditions. So, I sought to follow his advice this week, writing in the living room every morning.
My living room is similar to how White describes his. I live with four roommates, and we all use that room to make our breakfast in the morning, to do homework, and to chat before going to class. So, I knew I would have to deal with being a little distracted this week while I did my writing. However, I was less bothered by the interruptions than I thought I’d be. I didn’t find it too difficult to jump back into my writing after a quick dialogue between myself and one of my roommates, and it was usually pretty easy for me to tune them out when needed. I continued to write on paper for this week because E.B. White didn’t specify whether he wrote on paper and I enjoyed writing on paper the week prior. I also didn’t give myself a set minimum page/word count for each day like I had with Lily King’s experiment, because White didn’t specify. Thus, I stopped writing whenever I felt like I’d found a natural stopping point for the day.
Over the four days that I followed E.B. White’s writing routine, I wrote a total of 12.5 pages in my notebook (2693 words). I wrote somewhere between 400 and 1000 words each day. My output varied drastically based on how busy my living room was each morning and based on how focused I was on the task of writing. Writing took me between 40 and 75 minutes per day.
One particular morning happened to be one of my roommates’ birthdays, so I decided to cut my writing short, in part because I wasn’t very focused and in part because there was too much commotion for me to ignore. I didn’t feel great about my writing that day, but this made me more focused the next day to persevere and make sure I wrote something I was proud of. Thus, doing E.B. White’s writing routine made my writing far less consistent than it was the week prior, because a lot of my output depended on the environment I was surrounded by, but overall, it evened out in the end.
To the left is my data for this experiment. Overall, I felt as though I wrote some scenes that I’m proud of this week, but I don’t think working in a bustling room full of constant movement is something that I’ll want to continue after completing this experiment. I am glad that I spent the week pushing myself out of my comfort zone, but I do think there is something comforting about the consistency of writing at my desk every morning, where no one will interrupt me.
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