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Writing

Rules for writers, Tom Hanks and the Pomodoros Technique

I enjoy reading what successful authors have to say about the writing process. I like to know what time of day they like to write – what they drink while writing – what music they listen to, or don’t listen to. Do they write longhand or on a keyboard?  I have long been interested in writing as a craft. Sometimes I care more for reading about famous writers than I enjoy reading their work.

And I also enjoy collecting writers ‘rules. Writers’ rules are bits of advice that successful writers hand down to the rest of us ‘wanna be’ writers to help us develop and grow as writers.

Today, I am reading a set of rules compiled by novelist, Jonathan Franzen. I think they are so good that I keep them bookmarked so I can read them periodically.

I find Rule 8 on Franzen’s list especially interesting:

“It’s doubtful that anyone with an Internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”

This is a bombshell rule. Since I am thinking that most fiction today is written at workplaces (computers), it makes me wonder if Franzen is correct. Do successful authors have to work offline? Is Stephen King sitting in his writing shed tapping away at an IBM Selectric typewriter (full disclaimer, I just checked the internet to make certain that I spelled Selectric correctly). So there, the internet is already distracting me from my writing.

After spending some time working on a novel, I have concluded that the internet is a fact checking rabbit hole, down which it’s easy to disappear and difficult to re-emerge. What begins as a Google search into the earliest month daffodils bloom in Minnesota is likely to end in a descent into social media hell. In short, fifteen minutes of productive writing often ends in three minutes of research, followed by thirty minutes of non-productive web surfing.

So, do I need a fountain pen and yellow legal pad to write my novel? Do I need to get my 70’s era Olivetti manual typewriter out of storage? Or is there any in between?

Which brings me to Tom Hanks.

I read an interview with Tom Hanks earlier this year. As if being an Oscar winning movie star wasn’t enough, Hanks decided to become a best-selling novelist as well, and recently completed a 448-page novel titled “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece”. Early in the project, Hanks discovered that he needed help focusing on the task. To this end, Hanks used the much-touted ‘Pomodoro Technique’ to help him write his novel.

The Pomodoro Technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo, owner of a Berlin, Germany based consulting firm. Cirillo is credited with inventing the Pomodoro Technique, while he was a university student. Cirillo used a tomato shaped kitchen timer to time designated work intervals. The Italian word for tomato being Pomodoro, hence the name of the technique came into being.  

So, in practice it goes like this. Work periods are broken into 25-minute intervals, called pomodoros, after which you can take a 5-minute break. After four Pomodoros (about two hours), you are allowed a 20 – 30-minute break. Here we go:

  1. With your work open in front of you and ready to go, set a timer for 25 minutes. You can use a kitchen timer like Cirillo used, use one of a multitude of free online pomodoros timers, or just use your cell phone.
  2. NOW focus, focus, focus on the task.
  3. When the timer goes off at the end of the pomodoros, take a 5-minute break. Stretch, take a short walk, pour a cup of coffee etc. Just leave the work area.
  4. Repeat steps 1 through 3, three more times.
  5. Now take the big break. Go for a quick run, take a power nap, or pour a cocktail. You’ve done it.

According to the extremely focused folks at Harvard Business Review, the Pomodoro Technique not only helps users to turn off external time sucks like social media, but the real distractions that occur within our own heads.

I don’t know about you, but I’m up for trying the Pomodoros Technique.

I shall close with a quote from Tom Hanks regarding writing: “I write because I’ve got too many f—ing stories in my head. And it’s fun.”

Good for you Tom.

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