[lbo-talk] John Waters writing routine

Dennis Claxton ddclaxton at earthlink.net
Thu Aug 12 19:00:32 PDT 2010


Apropos our ipad/kindle etc. conversation:

http://blog.theparisreview.org/2010/08/09/john-waters/

[...]

My other ritual is that I write in longhand. On this one kind of legal pad called AMPAD Evidence. I like BIC pens, the clear black ones. And I have to use an exact kind of scotch tape when I cut things up­Scotch Magic Finish Tape. And I have to use the same style scissors.

So you use the scissors and the tape to take what you’ve written in longhand and rearrange it?

Yes. When I’m re-writing rather than copy the whole thing over and over, I’ll cut out three sentences and put ’em in. It’s a word processor, old fashioned, by hand. Then, when I get it back from my assistant typed, I cut it up again. Then there’s less and less writing the closer and closer it is until we start copyediting and proofreading and all that.

One thing I liked about the book was that it’s structured and well written, and yet it feels like we’re just having a chat with you as we read.

Well that’s good­I hope it’s like that, but it’s the exact opposite; I mean, that thing has been rewritten a million times.

[...]



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