Writing Schedules | Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Lee Gutkind

My triumph climbing the rope led to my understanding and appreciation of a writer’s real secret of success: discipline–an attempt to be creative and productive on a regular basis. Virtually every writer I have ever known or read about, regardless of genre, lifestyle, or location, writes or “works out,” on a regular schedule. From Styron to JC Oates to McPhee, writing regimentation is the key to success.

Writers usually work under regimentation: a disciplined, regular schedule, morning, noon or night, day after day, through most of the year. This is how writers become writers. They may write an impeccable essay, seemingly with ease. But they trained hard with disciplined regularity to produce a memorable literary effort. We often don’t think of writing as a deliberate act of discipline, but that is exactly how the artful essay begins.

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