Why Maya Angelou rented hotel rooms just to write: The unusual routine she followed to concentrate on her books
Angelou talked about her writing ritual in depth in a 1990 interview with The Paris Review (‘The Art of Fiction No. 119’).
She said she’d been renting hotel rooms for years, whether she was living in San Francisco, Winston-Salem, New York, or wherever. When it comes to renting hotel rooms, most people think of them as places to crash after a trip, or somewhere to relax for a while and escape their usual grind. However, for Maya Angelou, those rooms meant something else entirely: a creative zone, a personal retreat, sometimes even a bridge to her past. Even though she had her own place, Angelou would pay for a hotel room, sometimes for months at a time, just to write. She’d book a room in town, sometimes for months, and basically turn it into her writing studio.
She’d get up at 5:30, drink her coffee, leave home around six, and head for her hotel room. All this might sound quirky, but Angelou had a real reason for it. She believed that if she wanted to write honestly, especially about the tough bits in her life, she needed to break away from normal, comfortable surroundings. The hotel room wasn’t just a workspace; it was a shield against distractions and routine, a place where she could step outside of herself and let her mind wander back through all the chaotic, vivid pieces of her history. She wasn’t looking for luxury or comfort; she wanted a space that felt totally separate from her daily life. Before she got started, she’d have the hotel manager strip everything from the walls: all the art, trinkets, even photos. She’d whittle her world down to a bed, a table, a chair, her pads and pens. Angelou started her day before sunrise. Her writing toolkit was kind of unusual: a yellow legal pad, some pens, a dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, a Bible, a bottle of sherry, and, sometimes, a deck of cards. She didn’t sit at a desk; instead, she wrote while lying across the bed, resting on one elbow, which eventually gave her a callus. After her hotel session, Angelou went home, showered, ate, and took up the domestic side of her life. Later, usually around five, she’d look over what she’d written that morning and start editing.