Sarah asks David about his routine as a writer. David explains his meticulous process for organizing notes, transcribing interviews and what he learned about organization from other great biographers, and how he almost lost an early manuscript for one of his books.
In this episode, Sarah asks David about his routine as a writer. Using his book on the 1960 summer Olympics, Rome 1960, they go through each step of David’s process from getting an idea for a book, proposing it to his editor, through research, writing, and editing. David explains his meticulous process for organizing notes, transcribing interviews and what he learned about organization from the great biographers Taylor Branch and Robert Caro. Sarah and David discuss his routine for each day, his tricks for how to jump-start writing sessions and why his Pulitzer-prize winning colleague, Anne Hull, brought him a tuna fish sandwich days after 9/11. David discusses his wife Linda’s role in his routine, his late parents’ dualing editorial roles as early readers of his manuscripts and how he almost lost his only copy of an early manuscript for When Pride Still Mattered.