Writers on how they write: Amitav Ghosh

The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’m featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.

Today’s writer is Amitav Ghosh whose novels include “The Hungry Tide” and “Sea of Poppies.”

Mr. Ghosh writes by hand, then types a manuscript onto his laptop. Every morning, he revises what he wrote the day before. Every sentence that appears in his books has been through at least 20 revisions, he says.

Mr. Ghosh, who is now working on the sequel to “Sea of Poppies,” which is part of a trilogy, is particular about everything from his pen to the type of paper he writes on. He insists black ink Pelikan pens are the best, and buys white, lined paper from a French manufacturer. “If you work on paper so much, you get obsessive about even the spacing of the lines,” he says. “I need them to be fairly widely spaced.”

I’ve been using the same pen type for over two decades: Pentel Rolling Writer (black). I’m actually rather obsessive about it. I like it because the ink flows freely which helps because my writing hand is always trying to keep up with what I’m hearing in my brain. Fine line pens slow me down. How about you? Favorite pen?

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