Writing Faster and Better: What We Can Learn From Three Masters

I have always been fascinated by writers and artists able to accomplish massive amounts of work in short stretches of time. Like Handel who composed the 53 movements of The Messiah in 24 days. Or Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote The Remains of the Day in an unbelievable four weeks. Consider Van Gogh, who, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise, completed 70 paintings and over 100 drawings in a period of 70 days. Remarkable.

How did they do it? Not merely bringing to completion in short order a number of artworks, musical scores, or chapters of a book. But in doing so, creating masterpieces. Not only quantity, but quality at the highest level.

With The Messiah, the story is that in 1741, Handel, despondent and feeling that his musical career had reached an end, came home one night after wandering the streets and found a thick envelope that had been pushed under his door. It was from his librettist, and contained scriptural references for a project he was working on, one he feared would be his last. He took a quick look at the contents, then went to bed. Closed his eyes and half-slept, but the words of scripture kept going through his head. So he rose, went to the piano, and for the next 24 days, worked in a frenzy. Barely sleeping or eating, he created the 260 pages of The Messiah, one of the greatest musical compositions of all time.

In 1986, Ishiguro wrote the opening chapter for The Remains of the Day.  But in the subsequent year, while he did a great deal of research and preliminary planning on the novel, he did no additional writing. Then in collaboration with his wife, he declared a four week “crash.” During which he would write from 9:00 in the morning until 10:30 at night. He would not take phone calls, read any mail, or have any visitors. He wrote, not going back to edit, but allowing “awful sentences, hideous dialogue, scenes that went nowhere. ” Slogging on to the end. In four weeks, he completed the first draft. There was still editing to be done, but the “vital imaginative breakthroughs” came during those four weeks.

In the latter years of his career, Van Gogh, after suffering an episode of acute mental illness, moved to the village of Auvers sur Oise to paint, to be close to his brother, Theo, and also his doctor, Paul Gachet. The doctor recommended painting as part of his therapy, and as this was Van Gogh’s passion, his driving force, he was happy to comply. While at Auvers sur Oise, he painted wheatfields, vineyards, cottages, gardens, and churches. Completed a portrait of the 12 year old daughter of his innkeeper, and a portrait of Dr. Paul Gachet. He worked feverishly, sometimes completing more than one painting a day, doing some of his best work.

These three creatives achieved greatly. But again, the question. How did they do it? So quickly and so well? First of all, the three were already highly accomplished in their craft. Handel with over 100 major compositions completed before writing The Messiah. Ishiguro with two successful novels, and Van Gogh with over 800 paintings and 1,000 drawings. They each had “their chops” and were poised to achieve even more.

The second point to consider (at least for Ishiguro and Van Gogh) is their preparation and intention. Prior to “the crash,” Ishiguro had done extensive research for his novel. And he had a challenging but doable work schedule in place. Van Gogh’s practice was to deeply consider his subject and then paint quickly.  Striving to preserve the feelings, the emotions aroused, before they faded. Sometimes he was criticized for the speed at which he completed his paintings. But as he wrote to his brother, “If people say they’re done too quickly, you can reply that they’ve looked at them too quickly.”

Thirdly, we must point out the great significance of inspiration. In composing The Messiah, Handel said that “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” Van Gogh wrote that “I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.” Ishiguro, on the other hand seemed to value discipline over the lightning strike of inspiration, allowing the relationships between characters to spark his imagination.

Lastly, each of the three exhibited tremendous focus and dedication, and were willing to forgo personal needs and comforts to devote themselves to their art. Handel scarcely ate or slept in his fever of composing. Ishiguro worked punishing hours with little respite, and about his painting, Van Gogh said that “I don’t care for anything but the work.”

So….what can we take away from this? Personally, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write the essence of a novel in four weeks. Or complete 260 pages of poems in such short increments of time as did Handel and Van Gogh. I just don’t think I have it in me. We are who we are and we work as we work.

At the same time, I believe that we are all capable of more than we know. Early in my writing life, I attended a day-long generative poetry workshop and at the end of the day, had four new poems. This, for me at that stage of my writing career, was astounding. In April, during poetry month, some of my friends set a goal of writing a poem a day. (This was poet William Stafford’s process. He also wrote a poem a day, day after day and year after year.) Not exactly a “crash” like Ishiguro undertook, but a way to accomplish a great deal.

We can all consider ways to increase the number of creative works we complete. Continuing to learn and develop our craft, becoming more intentional about our work, and being open to inspiration. We can take advantage of generative workshops and retreats where the focus is on generating new poems or stories.

Reading about the accomplishment of artists like Handel, Ishiguro, and Van Gogh is inspiring. and we can learn from and be motivated by them. But I believe also that we can practice their methods only for limited periods of time, and then we must find balance. To keep our health, to live fully the lives we have been given, and to reserve our energies to keep on doing the work we love.