Hard work, Anons, that is one of the most important things...

Hard work, Anons, that is one of the most important things. I found a Russian website that mentions how fanatically Tolstoy worked on war and Peace. I copied the material on Google translate and changed into English. Here’s the more interesting parts:

>How Tolstoy worked

If this definition required evidence, then Tolstoy's creative activity could serve as the best illustration of it. Describing the extraordinary working capacity of Tolstoy, Dr. D. P. Makovntsky, who knew the great writer closely, noted: “Lev Nikolayevich worked every day, worked every hour, overcoming himself to do what was needed. He was merciless with himself. Leni did not know ... He, like the Chinese, did not recognize holidays. ”

First of all, the exceptional scope of Tolstoy’s self-educational work, his immense thirst for knowledge, are striking. By the end of his life, Tolstoy, according to the same Makovitsky, knew the following languages: French, German, English (perfectly), Italian (translated freely), Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew (knew well), Polish, Czech, Serbian, Bulgarian, Dutch, Ukrainian. It speaks of the great culture of a great writer.

The width of the self-educational work of Tolstoy is also evidenced by his Yasnaya Polyana library; several thousand volumes of it are stored on their pages interesting notes Tolstoy.

In the work of Tolstoy, he is struck by his extraordinary demands on himself as an artist of the word. A necessary condition for creativity, he considered the assimilation of the experience of all other writers. He systematically and unusually read a lot. He declared: “The right way is this: digest what your predecessors did, and move on.”

Literature for Tolstoy was the work of his life, in which he invested his whole soul. Only with such an attitude toward literature is, from the point of view of Tolstoy, the activity of the writer possible. “A work of art is the fruit of love,” he said. He himself worked passionately, with excitement, with passion. In 1864, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "Today in the morning he dictated about an hour to Tanya, well, calmly, without excitement, and without excitement our writing business will not happen."

cont

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russkay-literatura.ru/analiz-tvorchestva/62-tolstoj-ln-russkaya-literatura/327-obshhestvennaya-deyatelnost-tolstogo-v-60-x-godax.html
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There are a lot of Tolstoy’s statements that characterize his views on the creative process and on a work of art. Here are some of these statements:

“A terrible thing is a concern for perfect form. No wonder she ... you need to sharpen a piece of art to penetrate it. Sharpening means making it completely artistic. ”

"As gold is mined by washing, so are good, well-expressed thoughts."

"Simplicity is a necessary condition for the beautiful."

“Presentation always benefits from reduction. If the reader hears chatter, he does not pay attention. ” “It’s better not to talk than to talk.”

“We must forever reject the idea of writing without amendments. Three, four times is still not enough. ”

“The main thing is to not rush to write, not to be bored to correct, redo ten, twenty times the same thing.”

The preserved drafts of Tolstoy’s manuscripts give a clear idea of what care for the artistic form meant to him. So, the story "Childhood" has four editions and was written for eighteen months. In a story of six printed pages, therefore, the average productivity of a writer at this stage of work was five to six pages per month. The individual chapters of the novel “War and Peace” have up to seven editions, and the novel “Anna Karenina” - up to twelve editions. The beginning of the novel "Resurrection" has twenty editions. But the most striking figure of processing gives us the foreword of Tolstoy to the book "The Way of Life" (written in 1907-1910). This preface has one hundred and five editions. Such was the truly titanic work of Tolstoy on his works!

russkay-literatura.ru/analiz-tvorchestva/62-tolstoj-ln-russkaya-literatura/327-obshhestvennaya-deyatelnost-tolstogo-v-60-x-godax.html

How do I develop a good work ethic?

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wow what a showoff

>English (perfectly
lol doubt

the moral of this isn't 'be hardworking', but 'be enthusiastic' (and consume your enthusiasms quickly - lots of good writers did this)

>reading
>work

lmao

Pompous second source bullshit for children.

His wife was dedicated enough to re-type many of these editions, multiple times, and all that work together didn't prevent the crumble of their family life.

read Jordanos Son of Peter.

what an inspiration. Gospel in Brief converts and if it doesn't it's still handy. I've only read Karenina and W&P but talk about knowing humanity.

I curse the fact that I'm alive at a time when being at least bilingual isn't compulsory if you're born in the Anglosphere. What has replaced teaching young men and women Latin and Ancient Greek in modernity? Being technologically-literate?

Easy to do when you're a rich boy with nothing to coerce your attention away from the pursuit of your passions.

>and Ancient Greek in modernity?

Tolstoy learned ancient Greek by his own initiative (he hired a professor too, but most of the work he did it alone). You can do it too, user.

I might try to take it up, but hey, it's all Greek to me ;)

Become Ego. Tolstoy could not have done what he did without believing that he was the best writer that ever lived, or could be. Love yourself enough that you must make others love you and your work equally, if not more. Obsession, purely.

>13 languages
>all european
yeah, call me when he speaks mandarin or something
>all this shit about working hard
>3/4 of war and peace could have been cut, especially the shit in the first part with the stupid rich sods and bratty cunts

Virgin Tolstoy:
>works on one novel for years and years, making dozens of drafts
>reads everything he can get his hands on like a workhouse, mechanically stuffing his brain with useless shit in the hopes it will make him a better writer
>learns a bunch of languages to read books from other countries, wants to seem cultured and educated to impress his colleagues

Chad Dostoevsky
>does one draft, never edits
>writes like a demon then lounges for long periods of rest between works
>reads if he feels like it
>doesn't care about impressing a bunch of snobs, content with being viewed as a criminal and an outcast, does whatever he wants

Judging by OP's posts, a wealthy background that allows you to spend all day readin' and writin' is a prerequisite.

>works on one novel for years and years, making dozens of drafts
...and then gets translated by P+V. Damn.

>hebrew
>european

>does one draft, never edits
Imagine thinking this when it was stated multiple times he destroyed numerous drafts and started from scratch. Also the only times he took a brake from writing it was because his illness was so bad he was literally writing gibberish.

Thanks for this

Link the website user! Я pyccкий!

Is on the second post in the thread, in the bottom

bump

>3/4 of war and peace could have been cut
War and Peace was not his masterpiece though.

Balzac was a monster too.

It's mostly established during childhood and adolescence. You can technically develop it later but almost nobody does.

Thanks for sharing this OP. "The Kingdom of God is Within You", " What Shall We Do", some of his other essays that don't come to mind, "Calendar of Wisdom", and his translation " The Gospel in Brief " all had a very positive impact, as he put well into words concepts I had been struggling with. Excited to check out "The Way of Life" if it was his final writing (which I thought "The Awakening/Resurrection'' was; btw, decent novel, but its basically putting the above writings concepts a fictional skeleton to make them more palatable.)

what is your opinion on Crime and Punishment?

>"Simplicity is a necessary condition for the beautiful."
I'm reading his essay on art now and I can only imagine his reaction to a lot of the post modern literature that's popular today. He is an incredibly interesting guy and even considering how popular he is, I would still call him underrated because most people don't touch his philosophical writings.

Just brute force your way true the novel in a mad frenzy, like Chasdoevsky.
But yea discipline is really important I remember Hemingway wrote at least few hours a day no matter what.

Typical female post.

How many rich guys who wanted to become writers became Tolstoy?

Only Tolstoy. Maybe some of the Romans too, and Plato (who sometimes was poor).

The other Tolstoys (Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Joyce) weren't all that rich and often lived miserably.

Typical monolingual Anglo post.

I bet you can't even understand Scots, Jimmy.

Slavic languages =/= European languages

Wrong, buddy. That image of genius in his study is a cliche people willingly or unwillingly use in “official” memoirs. You should know better if you read great Modernist writers.

When you know your capacities and see the potential that you have you feel more energized and exited to work hard and give the necessary steps to achieve your goals.

Base

WHY THE FUCK DID HE HATE SHAKESPEARE? WHAT A FAG

There's no real moral meaning or purpose behind Shakespeare. His plays were written purely for pleasure and Tolstoy considers all such "art" as decadent or ultimately a product of the elite classes no longer believing in religion. His views on art are actually well thought out and it's worth looking into.

>There's no real moral meaning or purpose behind Shakespeare.
HOLY COW! YOU'RE THE MOST STUPID PERSON I'VE EVER MET ON Yea Forums