Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
Kenneth Atchityamazon.com
Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
Cutting is a fine-tuning process that begins when you know what you’re looking for: You need to know what you’ve already said before you can remove everything that confuses what you’ve said.
Kenneth Atchity • Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
Richard Lanham’s Revising Prose and Bruce Ross-Larson’s Edit Yourself are the best books I know of that actually take you through the steps of self-editing until you can master the skill yourself.
Kenneth Atchity • Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
Your first interview, of course, will take longest with probably least satisfactory response (although beginner’s luck may work for you here). But don’t let that upset you; the individual interview will follow its own laws of time, so structure it to take advantage of this inevitability.
Kenneth Atchity • Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
"First Time" – the fact that new things take longer – relates to that advice first-time founders are given about pitching investors. They recommend pitching less important/likely-to-invest VCs first so you can make all your mistakes with less risk. I always interpreted this as scarcity thinking, or fear-driven thinking, a criticism of the founder's ability. But that view paints over the fact that First Time is a real thing we ought to respect. The real danger in ignoring this advice and going straight after your top VC is not that you are more likely to fuck it up and lose the chance to win their investment, it's that you'll experience the negative reinforcing effects that come from not honouring First Time and will mistakenly belief you're not up to the job at all.
With money you can buy time: time to do the things you want to do, instead of merely doing the things you merely can do. Aim to do what only you can do, and stop doing what you—as well as others—can do. Simply being able to do a thing is not a good reason for doing it if you want to be in control of your own time.
Kenneth Atchity • Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
A story, clarified, will cause the words needed for its telling. In the same fashion, myth is the source of story. The same myth causes—inspires and shapes—countless stories. Films like Gone with the Wind and The Help may even “improve” on the story told by the successful novels they were “based on.” When this happens it’s because the filmmakers re
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The glue that holds everything together is the fluid constancy of the mind, technically expressed through “linkage.” Techniques like this one translate that constant mental energy into the external materials of the craft: tricks of the trade.
Kenneth Atchity • Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision—and Beyond
The islands and the Continent work together through the stages of creation, vying with one another for voice and articulation. Writing is the conscious ordering of unconscious material, with the Continent of Reason applying its logic to the intuitive logic of the islands so that their alternative visions of the world can be expressed in a language
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In a productive, well-ordered life two elements must be managed: time and work. Poor time managers fail to recognize the difference between the two elements: Work is infinite; time is finite. Therefore you must manage your time, not your work. Work expands to fill whatever time is allotted to it. If your work is successful, it generates more work;
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Remember that there’s a distinction between “public” and “private” voice. You may be interested in your private voices (as Joan of Arc was); but unless you find a way of allowing us to hear them, you’re probably too caught up in the voices from your “islands” and you’re in for trouble as a writer. Your Continent controls the medium of communication
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