“The novels take longer to write than the picture book texts, and they do take a different sort of concentration. However, a very short, simple story that works well is just as exciting to me as any longer and more complex book.” WritingWellsBookDifferentStoriesSimpleNovelExcitingComplexesConcentrationPicture Books Author:Margaret Mahy
“It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.” IfsThinkingGivingWritingFirstsBookProblemAttentionHappenedSubjectsSeriousNeededPeriodsSolutionsIntenseClarityRevelationsConcentrationContemplatingSubconsciousDeliberateIncubation Author:Bertrand Russell
“When you write a two thousand page history of the Second World War, the deportations and the concentration camps will take up five pages, and the gas chambers perhaps 20 lines.” WorldWritingTwoWarLinesFiveThousandPagesWar Of The WorldsGasConcentrationCampsChamberSecond World WarConcentration CampDeportationGas Chambers Author:Jean-Marie Le Pen
“I wake up fairly early every day, by 8, for sure. Sunday is a lighter writing day than the weekdays, but I still wake up and write for about an hour, beginning right around 8. I definitely have coffee first, and then I start writing. I do think it's kind of hard to get the right level of concentration without coffee.” ThinkingWritingFirstsKindStillsHardHoursLevelsWake UpCoffeeConcentrationSundayLightersWeekdays Author:Karen Thompson Walker