A Writer's Time Quotes

“Aristotle said that the most characteristically human activity is planning your life, yet it’s amazing how few people take life planning seriously. Those who do are the productive people; those who don’t disappear under the surface without leaving a bubble behind to brighten the world. So strongly did the Greeks believe in planning that they literally planned their lives, dividing them into seven-year periods and deciding what they wanted to accomplish during each of those periods. It’s not time that’s scarce: It’s planning. The Italians say, “there’s more time than life,” suggesting that you’ll have plenty of time to do all you want to do if you take the time to plan.”
― Kenneth Atchity, Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond

“Discipline, not the Muse, results in productivity. If you write only when she beckons, your writing is not yours at all.”
― Kenneth Atchity, A Writer's Time: Making the Time to Write

“Writing must have an element of magic to it. When that magic takes over, the writer himself loses track of time during the writing—and the reader will lose track of time during the reading. If you’re happy at work and think of it as your own private briar patch—a place of escape from the world in which time is your time—the clock of life becomes your clock, and even the thorns in that briar patch are of your own choosing.”
― Kenneth Atchity, Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond

“Write to make a difference. Write because you have something to say to us all. In dramatic writing, fiction, and nonfiction, this means knowing exactly what your work is about and being able to tell the publisher in ten words or less. The writing must demonstrate its premise in a convincing, persuasive way. Keep your audience in mind, their needs and their desires. Journalists do this by focusing on the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why) because they know what their readers look for. Convey emotion, break out of your academic inhibitions and psychological barriers. William Faulkner hints at this when he says, “Writing is a craft consisting of pen, paper, and whiskey.” The purpose of the whiskey is to rid the author of inhibitions.”
― Kenneth Atchity, Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond

“Norman Cousins, author of Anatomy of an Illness and The Healing Heart, divides the human race into “positive” and “negative” people: The positive people work miracles, accounting for the evolution of human performance. I add another division, productive and nonproductive people: those who can do things and those who only talk about things (especially talk about why they can’t do things). As far back as I can remember, I was determined to contribute something, to be productive, and I’ve always questioned those who—though they may know much—go through life without making a mental contribution to the species: “If I live, I ought to speak my mind.” Productive people have a love affair with time, with all of love’s ups and downs. They get more from time than others, seem to know how to use time much better than nonproductive people—so much so that they can waste immense quantities of time and still be enormously creative and productive. One of my favorite examples is John Peabody Harrington, the great anthropologist of the American Southwest. At the time of his death, Harrington’s field notes filled a basement of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and several rented warehouses in the Washington suburbs were needed for the overflow. Yet Carobeth Laird, his wife and Harrington’s biographer, called him one of the greatest wasters of time she’d ever known—and said he felt the same way about himself.”
― Kenneth Atchity, Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond