# How to Write a Lot ![[Assets/0e4ecdbba3e8dfadf5e9d85c1b85c5ce_MD5.jpg]] ## Metadata - Author: [[Paul J. Silvia PhD]] - Full Title: How to Write a Lot - Category: #books ## Highlights - The only thing that a writer’s room needs, according to Stephen King (2000), is “a door which you are willing to shut” (p. 155). ([Location 33](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=33)) - Writing productively is about actions that you aren’t doing but could easily do: making a schedule, setting clear goals, keeping track of your work, rewarding yourself, and building good habits. Productive writers don’t have special gifts or special traits—they just spend more time writing and use this time more efficiently (Keyes, 2003). ([Location 41](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=41)) - Writing is a skill, not an innate gift or a special talent. Like any advanced skill, writing must be developed through systematic instruction and practice. ([Location 62](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=62)) - How to Write a Lot views writing as a set of concrete behaviors, such as (a) sitting on a chair, bench, stool, ottoman, toilet, or patch of grass and (b) slapping your flippers against the keyboard to generate paragraphs. You can foster these behaviors using simple strategies. Let everyone else procrastinate, daydream, and complain—spend your time sitting down and moving your mittens. ([Location 84](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=84)) - To begin, allot a mere 4 hours per week. After you see the astronomical increase in your writing output, you can always add more hours. ([Location 128](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=128)) - Well-intentioned intruders ([Location 153](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=153)) - How can you handle well-intentioned intruders? Just say no—that ([Location 156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=156)) - “If the water is dark,” goes a German aphorism, “the lake must be deep.” ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001Y35G60&location=527))