When: From about 9.00 a.m. to about 12.30 p.m. and may be again for a couple of hours between 4.00 and 7.00 p.m.
How: I wrote on a non-electric typewriter until 1995, which — to me — was not all that long ago. Since then I have been using a PC. My laptop, however, sits on a desk, not on my lap. Thanks to a nephew who knows what’s happening in the world, I have recently acquired a full-size keyboard plus a large-enough external screen. I am resisting pressure to switch to a Mac.
Where: Right now my desk is housed in the loft of a small condo in Urbana, Illinois, a quiet university town. Loft plus desk may be said to equal a study. At times I bring the laptop down to the ground-floor dining table. At airports or on flights, I jot down notes but do not write or type.
What: To start with, I type notes for a chapter and rejig them into an outline. Once I know the outline or design, I sail into the text and usually keep sailing until the chapter ends — in the first of perhaps several drafts.
As told to RINI MUKKATH
