“The single most important technique for making progress is to write ten words. Doesn't matter if you're badly stuck, or your day is completely jam-packed, or you're away from your computer - carry a small paper notebook and write a sentence of description while you're waiting on line at a coffee shop. I think of this as baiting a hook. Even if you have a few days in a row where nothing comes except those ten words, I find that as long as you have to think about the novel enough to write ten words, the chances are that more will come.” IfsThinkingWritingLongImportantMatterEnoughWaitingLinesChanceNovelProgressTenPaperComputerSentencesTechniqueCoffeeStuckShopsDescriptionHookJamChances AreNotebookCoffee Shop Author:Naomi Novik
“I'm just very, very slow. I would not make it as a journalist, I've got to tell you. I sweat bullets over every sentence, and sometimes, you know, a day will pass and I've written one paragraph, and I've been at the computer for four hours.” KnowsSometimesHoursFourWrittenComputerSentencesJournalistSweatBulletsParagraph Author:Susan Elizabeth Phillips
“The work saved me. I clung to it like flotsam in a boiling sea. It was the only solitary sport that I ever played, or was any good at. It felt natural to sit at my computer and type and type some more. For entire minutes, while writing, I could forget the godawful thing that had happened. I could forget that nothing really mattered anymore. Perhaps, if I set my sights low, I could care again about some small thing. I would type a word. One word. Then another. I started to care about the words, then entire sentences.” IfsWritingCareFeltSportsNaturalForgetHappenedSeaMinutesTypeComputerLowsSightSentencesSavedSolitarySmall ThingsOne WordBoilingFlotsam Book:Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir Source: Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir
“Writing on a computer feels like a recipe for writer's block. I can type so fast that I run out of thoughts, and then I sit there and look at the words on the screen, and move them around, and never get anywhere. Whereas in a notebook I just keep plodding along, slowly, accumulating sentences, sometimes even surprising myself.” FeelsWritingLooksI CanSometimesRunningMovingTypeComputerSentencesScreensBlockSurprisingRecipesNotebookWriter's Block Author:Chad Harbach
“Writing helped to have jobs that involved running around, pushing things like dish carts and wheelbarrows. It would be hard to sit at a desk all day, and then come to sit at another desk. Also, it helps to abandon hope. If I sit at my computer, determined to write a New Yorker story I won't get beyond the first sentence. It's better to put no pressure on it. What would happen if I followed the previous sentence with this one, I'll think. If the eighth draft is torture, the first should be fun. At least if you're writing humor.” IfsThinkingShouldWritingFirstsHardHelpingStoriesHappensWould BeRunningJobsFunInvolvedComputerPressureDeterminedSentencesTorturePushingAbandonDishesDesksNew YorkersCartsNo PressureWheelbarrowsWriting Humor Author:David Sedaris
“Novels are almost like music or poetry - they just come to me in simple sentences, whereas I think my pieces get more and more complex ever since I've started using a computer.” ThinkingSimpleNovelPiecesComputerComplexesSentences Author:Joan Didion
“I have many stories which don't make it to the computer. When I put it into the computer I make some changes and often add a few sentences here and there. I like the typewriter for first drafts because it means you can't change anything right away, you just have to put it all down.” FirstsMeanStoriesComputerAddSentencesHere And ThereCan't ChangeTypewriters Author:Arthur Bradford
“When I'm sitting at the desk not being able to write line one, it's silence and despair! It's not so easy to put the pen to the legal pad or type the first sentence on the computer screen.” WritingFirstsAbleEasyLinesSilenceTypeDespairComputerSittingSentencesScreensPensDesksPadsComputer Screen Author:Erica Jong