Truman is a human I find truly fascinating. Ever since I learned about him in one of my American Culture courses at the University of Michigan in Fall 2013, I’ve enjoyed watching his video interviews and reading about him online. As for his writing routine though, I found it a little difficult to adhere to. When I say this, I mostly mean being horizontal while writing; I did not care for that too much.

During the first half of the Capote section of my novella, I followed the coffee-tea-sherry-martini regimen to the letter; perhaps this occurred during the first three sessions. Thereafter, I was mostly just making sure that I was lying down while writing, which, again, was not my favorite. I had considered puffing on a cigar while writing, but I did not want to do this indoors and outdoors was out of the question due to cold weather.

I completely ignored Truman’s drafting process, skipping right ahead to simply typing out the words on my laptop. (Only my emulation of Maya saw me actually write by hand.) Writing as if I was sitting by a fireplace telling a story on a cold winter’s night was sort of a hard feeling to capture, but I feel I did get a bit conversational in this section at some points.

Being true to Truman, I didn’t worry about sentence structure or commas or semi-colons; I just let them come as they may, as is evidenced in the paragraph you are reading now. One piece of Truman’s advice that I really like is not to bother with outlines. I have never liked them and his explanation for doing away with them is justification enough for me.

As for his other advice, I’m not sure that I wrote anything on a Friday during this part of the novella — I’m also too lazy to figure that out at this point — and I was/am writing about something I know well that has meaning for me. Though I’ve come to love Truman’s quirks and fantastical-seeming life, I cannot say I will try to emulate his writing style or routine again.