'I write eight hours a day...'

Becoming a Story Teller 💛

Do You Want To Be A Storyteller? 🎶

19th November 2020

Catching up with the legendary Jeffrey Archer LIVE... 🎶

7:45 pm - 8:45 pm 💛

Jeffrey Archer speaks out his heart...

I believe writing is no different from singing in an opera or playing on the violin.

If you’re educated, you can be a good writer.

But being a story teller is something different.

For me, I wanted to be a politician.

Only 29 years old, I found myself sitting in the House of Commons, as a Member of Parliament.

Looking back, I thought I was too young to enter the House of Commons. I had five years in the House of Commons.

Everything went on fine, until I made a foolish investment.

I stupidly borrowed money, and ended up with debts of 400,000 pounds, 45 years ago, a lot of money.

I was out of job, unemployable.

Facing bankruptcy, but glad to say, I never went bankrupt.

Then I wrote my first book – Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less!

Sixteen publishers turned down my first book.

The 17th publisher did only 3000 copies.

Then they went into paperback and made several thousand copies.

The real breakthrough came when I wrote Cain and Abel, which sold a million copies, and it changed my fortune thereafter.

Now I’ve written 33 books, and I’m still going strong, because I love it.

After Cain and Abel, I wrote three more books, when Thatcher called me back to politics.

People ask if I regret keeping away from writing!

But I tell you, they were amazing experiences for me!

After John Major, I involved full time in writing.

Now let me brief you on my Process of Writing

I rise at 5.30 am in the morning and start writing at 6 am.

I do work from 6 to 8 am!

Then I take a two hour break, to read the morning newspapers and have my breakfast.

Then from 10 to 12 I write.

10,000 paces I walk before lunch.

After lunch I work from 2 to 4 pm.

Take another break, and return for the final session that goes between 6 and 8 pm.

So I write eight hours a day.

The first draft takes 40 to 45 days.

That’s been a regular routine with me for the past fifteen years.

That all of course changed because of COVID 19.

I also want to tell you, how I write.

I write with a felt tip pen.

I can’t use any kind of machinery.

I hand write every single word, and then it is sent to my secretary Allison who types it out triple space, and then I hand write it with my pencil on that script.

And possibly by the end, 14 drafts, all hand written, I would think that would be 20 percent larger than the original book that I wrote in the first 45 days.

One gets the story done in the first fifty days.

The rest 150 days, you develop it and hone it to perfection.

After 50 years, you gain experience that you don’t commit that much mistakes.

These strange situations of COVID 19 and lockdown, my wife and I were locked down for a 146 days in our home in Cambridge, which is where i’m sitting now.

So I had to break my routine for the first time.

So I had to make use of the time constructively.

I felt that the discipline must be maintained.

I did 6 to 8 writing.

Then from 10 to 12

Then I made the change!

Having gone for my walk, and having had my lunch, I didn’t start until 3 pm

So from 3 to 5 I wrote again.

And hence instead of eight hours a day, I wrote six hours a day.

In that time of 145 days, I did six hours.

I did 900 hours of writing – I wrote an entire book in that period.

Then I had a month’s break – I went back – took the final draft.

So instead of doing a book in a year – but in six months.

In the publishing, the printing process is not a quick one.

But before finishing with one book, I never think about the next book.

I’m 80 years now, to remind you, and I love writing, and feel it’s a privilege, which I won’t be stopping, because I feel I’m not old enough to stop writing!

I like a particular print that is easy to read!

I see the cover! And indeed, if I don’t like the cover, I ask them to change it.

People ask me, ‘Are you excited about writing the same way, you were, fifty years ago?’

I reply, ‘Well, yes! I am as excited even now, and I will continue to be so, till my last full stop!’

I had 92 short stories made up of six volumes!

I wanted to captain the English cricket team! I also wanted to be Prime Minister.

But it’s been a much greater privilege to be a writer.

What a great privilege!

Thank you for listening to me speak on my career, my passion, my life!

The best questions I’ve had from India are from children! Aged 11, 12, 13, 14 and listen to what they’ve to say about writing!

Thank you very much! 🎶

Now Q & A is in progress… 💛