Roald Dahl's writing shed (1982) [video]

Some quotes from Dahl from the interview:<p><i>The discipline of writing</i>:<p>&quot;Your concentration is fairly intense. You&#x27;re lost into this world of the story that you happen to be doing - it&#x27;s terrifically demanding you know. What do I write four, four-and-a-half hours a day - so a quarter of my waking hours I am completely immersed in a dotty world of fantasy.&quot;<p><i>Writing for children vs adults</i>:<p>&quot;To my mind, there&#x27;s no question that to write a children&#x27;s book of comparable quality to a fine adult novel or story is more difficult - it&#x27;s much more difficult to achieve the children&#x27;s book.&quot;

Roald Dahl also wrote the screenplay for the James Bond film &quot;You only live twice&quot;, which was almost completely rewritten from the novel, about which Dahl said &quot;Fleming&#x27;s worst book, with no plot in it which would even make a movie&quot;, comparing it to a travelogue of Japan.

Are Roald Dahl&#x27;s adult novels as good as his children&#x27;s books? I absolutely loved to read his stories as a child and probably would enjoy a similar experience as an adult. Heck I should probably pick Fantastic Mister Fox or Danny the Champion of the World and read them again.

&gt; You can quote Oscar Wild and say &quot;When I am gone, I hope it will be said: that my sins were scarlet, but my books were read&quot;

It&#x27;s interesting to compare his setup for writing to a modern day setup for coding. I think there is a lot to be said for the little cues that give your mind the prompts it needs to know that you are &quot;working&quot;. Clearly his setup helped him really get in the zone and it&#x27;s interesting to see a 80&#x27;s version of it.

I remember hearing about the writing shed and thinking it was really cool, until I realized it was so he could write his mistress(Felicity d&#x27;Abreu Crosland) without his wife finding out about it.

What a perfect chair and table for a laptop, inspirational!

Having lived from age 5 to 11 in London in the 80s, this throwback to old school BBC interviewing is quite the blast from the past.

I found it interesting that while he was very particular about setting up his writing nest and getting in the zone, he had two telephones on the desk next to him which surely would be a distraction, a temptation, or a combination of the two.

I loved to see in the video what looks like a specific ritual he does in his little shed to get ready to work, really preparing himself mentally for a long focused stretch, amazing!