Flannery O'Connor's Daily Routine

Flannery O'Connor wrote Wise Blood and the stories in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and her Complete Stories won the National Book Award in 1972. Lupus kept her on her mother's Georgia farm, Andalusia, for her last 13 years. Her writing routine was just 3 hours a day, and she called it a condition of survival.

She began with prayers and a thermos of coffee, then daily Mass in Milledgeville. From 9:00 AM to noon she wrote at a desk facing a blank wall. The rest of the day was hers to rest: letters, visitors on the porch, painting and her flock of more than 40 peafowl, the birds a National Catholic Register visit to Andalusia still goes looking for.

It suits anyone writing around low energy, a health condition or a short window of focus. It also suits people who feel guilty for stopping at noon.

You get three protected hours, a quiet start that gets you to the desk ready, and an afternoon with no pressure to do more. Pick one window, face a wall, and let the rest of the day count as rest. The bedtime and the time at Mass are our estimates.