Do All Writers Day Dream a Lot?

I first heard it while listening to an old Somerset Maugham interview on YouTube. He mentioned the importance of being easily able to go into a reverie for being as prolific as he was. Being an incorrigible day dreamer myself, this immediately resonated with me. Later on, while reading dozens of interviews under “Writers at Work” series in The Paris Review, I was hoping to see other writers also confessing to day dreaming a lot, but sadly I found no mention of it at all. Now this makes me wonder, how important is day dreaming to writing process? Do all writers day dream a lot?

Writing is thinking and different people can think in different ways — some can think only when their pen is on the paper as if pen is their thought downloading device, while some let their mind work up a lot before it crystalizes some thoughts to be put on the paper, still others glide into their thoughts all day long gleaning nuggets of substance here and there, coming back to put their pickings safely on paper before drifting back again. But I wonder if the first two ways could really give a professional writer enough material to be able to come up with something substantial consistently? Even if they could, would they be as enjoyable as the third way of thinking? And without enjoyment how could any writer keep on going in a marathon which is serious professional writing?

If not for anything else, these questions could be important while determining whether a young adult has an aptitude for this art or not. Anybody could be a writer if they put their mind to it but whom would you advise to seriously consider taking up this vocation before anything else? Would the habit of going into a reverie be important to you at all?