John Milton's Framework

Milton was completely blind for the last twenty years of his life and composed Paradise Lost, ten thousand lines, entirely in his head. His day was built around the hours when memory holds. He rose at four, five in winter, and an aide read the Bible to him for half an hour. Then he lay alone composing as many lines as he could carry. At seven the aide returned to take dictation, and if the man was late Milton complained that he needed to be milked. Reading back and revising ran until lunch at noon. The afternoon is what makes the framework workable rather than monastic. After lunch he walked up and down his garden for three or four hours, then gave the late afternoon and evening to visitors, a light supper and a pipe, and was in bed by nine. Here that is a nine-to-four night, three hours of creative work, two of review, three of walking and five of company. Try it if your ideas come before dawn and die by lunch.