“Fiction -- at least for me -- requires long, relatively uninterrupted time stretches in which to bring it to fruition. I've never been a two-hour-in-the-morning writer, who could put in another six hours on Sunday afternoon. For me, a novel requires weeks of living in a largely mental and wholly internal landscape. Everything else has to be relegated to the odd hour here, the bit of time there. Sadly, however, uninterrupted time blocks are not what life doles out today to any of us with regularity.” LongTwoTodayBitsHoursFictionMorningNovelWeekSixBlockLandscapeOddInternalsSundayAfternoonRegularityFruitionSunday Afternoons Book:Conversations with Samuel R. Delany Source: Conversations with Samuel R. Delany
“This is another thing which I really like investigating in my novels: what is it that makes an intimate society, that makes a society in which moral concern for others will be possible? Part of that I think are manners and ritual. We tried to get rid of manners, we tried to abolish manners in the '60s. Manners were very, very old-fashioned and un-cool. And of course we didn't realise that manners are the building blocks of proper moral relationships between people.” PeopleThinkingCoursesMoralNovelBuildingConcernBlockMannersIntimateRitualRealisingOld FashionedAbolishInvestigatingBuilding BlocksConcern For Others Author:Alexander McCall Smith
“In 25 years of writing novels, I've never had anything that felt like writer's block.” WritingYearsFeltNovelBlockWriter's Block Author:Richard Powers
“Writers block: when I get it, it's because my subconscious spotted that I'd make a huge structural mistake in constructing a novel before my conscious mind became aware of it, and threw on the brakes. So I've learned not to sweat it: take two days off, then back up a chapter, read through, and try to work out why I'm suddenly uneasy about continuing.” TryingMindTwoMistakeNovelHugeConsciousWork OutBlockI've LearnedSweatChaptersContinuingSubconsciousTwo DaysUneasyWriter's BlockDays OffBrakeConscious Mind Author:Charles Stross