Marlon James’ Writing Routine

"Writing is work for me. I just don’t have the luxury of waiting until the mood strikes. I don’t have the luxury of waiting until inspiration strikes."

Marlon James is terrified of writing. It doesn’t matter that he’s a Man Booker Prize-winning author. It doesn’t matter that he’s published five successful novels. It doesn’t matter that he lectures at St. Francis College’s Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. He is still terrified whenever he sits down in front of the computer.

“Writing is something I still approach with fear,” he admitted in 2019. “I reach every blank page thinking this is the story where it will all crash and burn.”

But that fear hasn’t stopped him. In fact, it’s been quite useful in his writing career. “There’s a part of your brain that springs to action when the stakes are high,” he explained. “You have to write like this is going to be your last book, that they’re coming to take your pencils if you don’t write. Even if you have to invent stakes, you have to believe it matters. You’d better bring your best game.”

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, James left the country to escape its poor economic conditions as well as the…