Amélie Nothomb - DeveloPassion

# Amélie Nothomb French-speaking Belgian novelist. She has 40+ published books and has written over a hundred manuscripts. She writes ~4 books per year. Her writing routine: - She wakes up at 4AM and writes until 8AM, along with a black tea and a Bic pen - From Monday to Sunday - She doesn't have a good sleep hygiene. She sometimes writes after having slept only for about an hour - Her writing discipline is VERY STABLE, no matter what happens with her life or her sleep: "You wake up at 4, and you do what you have to do" - She acquired her writing discipline around early 1989. She wasn't feeling well (physically), went back to Japan (where she grew up), and started feeling better. At that point, feeling better, she experimented with various writing schedules and settled on the one that worked best for her She has recurring insomnia, during which she often writes, in her head, using her inner voice. When she finally has a pen in hand, she thinks about the different ideas she wants to put in writing, and gets rid of as much "noise" as she can. > Plus on peut enlever, plus ça devient vraiment stupéfiant. Plus on enlève, plus le son est stupéfiant et plus le sens est stupéfiant She hates taking notes to remember things. According to her, "taking notes is the death of memory". She needs to maximize her memory because she writes in her head, thus if the information is not there, she cannot connect all the dots. > Prendre des notes, c'est la mort de la mémoire In an interview, she explained that she has experimented with many different types of drugs. What helped her most was strong tea (black tea). Alcohol didn't work, and neither did other types of drugs. With some of those, she couldn't even hold a pen anymore. She also tried psychedelics, including Ayahuasca, which is forbidden in many countries, but considered as a National treasure in Peru. That drug is MUCH stronger than most hallucinogens combined. Under its influence, she was also completely unable to write. She wrote about that experiment, and even wrote a manuscript about how powerful an experience it was for her. That manuscript was never published because she was overly positive about the drugs, and Albin-Michel (her publisher) thought it was a dangerous book (even illegal) to publish (and she agrees). Writing sometimes makes her suffer physically (hand, shoulders, etc), and she believes that it's a good thing, that writing has to go through the body, be "lived". She doesn't read e-mails. She only replies to actual letters from her audience. And she actually does reply. She spends multiple hours each day doing so. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShmkZYydI8 ## Quotes  ## Books   - [[Fear and Trembling (book)]]