Barbara Kingsolver wakes up before dawn and runs to her desk. That is how she writes Partita, her new novel out now from Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The novelist, who also holds degrees in biology and once worked as a scientist, answered a few questions for a Lit Hub questionnaire about her habits. The answers include a confession that would surprise most readers: she writes standing up.
Dawn Starts
Kingsolver’s morning ritual begins before the sun rises. “Once I’m seriously into a writing project,” she said, “I tend to wake up before dawn with words flooding into my brain.” She lets the ideas pool until they feel like they might spill out, then grabs her desk.
She breaks only to refill her coffee cup. No other distractions until lunchtime. If the work is going well, she forgets lunch and keeps going until early evening. The flow state is so blissful, she forgets she has a body.
Her husband, Steven, delivers a sandwich to her desk quietly. Otherwise she would have perished by now.
Block and Drafting
Writer’s block hits Kingsolver hard. “Every single time,” she said, “I somehow convince myself it’s the stupidest thing anybody has ever written. Ev-ver. It’s paralyzing.”
The escape route is simple: write badly. “Just do it! Badly!” she said. “After all, nobody’s going to see it.” The draft won’t leave her office until it has been rewritten a dozen or fifty times, slowly moving from stupid to decent to the book she wants it to be.
Advice Worth Keeping
Francine Prose gave Kingsolver advice a very long time ago. “The first sentence (or paragraph) of a novel should make a promise that the rest of the book will keep,” Prose said. Kingsolver called it brilliant.
“It forces you, the writer, to get very clear with yourself about your intentions, right from the start,” she said. “You will not be wasting the reader’s time. I will die on that hill.”
Standing Desk Origins
The standing desk is not a fancy lifestyle choice. It was a fix for physical pain.
Two weeks before a drop-dead deadline on a final draft of a novel, Kingsolver said, the pain was yelp-out-loud excruciating in any position other than lying flat on the floor or standing. She rigged a prop-up thing for her computer and finished the book standing.
It went so well, she ordered a proper standing desk and has been pain free ever since. Her last half dozen books have been produced by a woman entirely on her feet.
First Love
Kingsolver fell in love with Little Women in the way-back of her family’s station wagon when she was nine. On one of those interminable vacations where the parents want the kids to behave while driving a million miles to some Important Destination, she sank deep into the book.
“I have a clear memory of waking up out of the book just long enough to look around and think: ‘I hope we NEVER get to the Grand Canyon,'” she said.
The Long List
Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Her novel The Poisonwood Bible was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
The Lacuna won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Flight Behavior was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, the country’s highest honor for service through the arts, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her body of work.
She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.
What Readers Miss
Kingsolver’s routine is not what most readers expect from a bestselling novelist. The standing desk is a practical solution to a real problem, not a pose.
The Lit Hub questionnaire asks writers about their daily lives. Kingsolver answered honestly. The result is a portrait of a writer who wakes before dawn, drinks coffee without stopping, and refuses to sit down until the book is done.
Here is how her writing day breaks down:
- Wake before dawn with words flooding into her brain.
- Let ideas pool until they feel like they might leak out.
- Run to her desk and start typing.
- Break only to refill her coffee cup.
- Keep writing until lunchtime, often forgetting lunch.
- Continue until early evening.
- Accept a sandwich delivered quietly by Steven.
| Habit | Detail |
|---|---|
| Writing time | Before dawn |
| Coffee breaks | Only to refill the cup |
| Lunch | Often forgotten |
| Standing desk | Started with a homemade rig |
Kingsolver’s career spans decades and continents. Her work has earned a devoted readership across more than twenty languages. The awards pile up: Pulitzer finalist, PEN/Faulkner finalist, Orange Prize winner, Women’s Prize shortlist, National Humanities Medal, Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
But the question that stays with a reader is the small one. How do you start? Kingsolver’s answer is to let the words flood in before dawn, then pour them into the keyboard without stopping.
That is the part worth watching.
Source material: “Why Barbara Kingsolver Writes Standing Up,” Literary Hub.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.