"If you can't think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway. If you can think of lots more when you've finished the three pages, don't write it; it'll be that much easier to get going next day"
About this Quote
Pullman is prescribing a discipline that sounds almost hostile to inspiration, and that’s the point. “Tough luck; write anyway” isn’t macho posturing so much as a refusal to romanticize the blank page. He treats the mind like a muscle: you don’t negotiate with it, you train it. The intent is practical craft advice, but the subtext is a quiet critique of the myth that good writing arrives on cue, bestowed by mood, genius, or some fragile “creative” weather system.
The three-page limit is the sly part. Pullman isn’t just telling you to produce; he’s telling you to stop while you still have momentum. That goes against the binge culture of creativity, where you empty yourself out in a late-night sprint and then wonder why the next day feels like crawling. By ending with more left to say, you leave a breadcrumb trail for your future self. It’s an anti-procrastination hack disguised as stoicism: make tomorrow easier by refusing today’s temptation to “finish it all.”
Context matters: Pullman is a novelist, a builder of long narrative architectures. Novels aren’t written by lightning bolts; they’re assembled by returning, again and again, to the same world. His rule enforces that return. It also acknowledges a psychological truth writers hate admitting: motivation is often the reward for starting, not the prerequisite. Pullman’s method doesn’t flatter you. It gets you back to work.
The three-page limit is the sly part. Pullman isn’t just telling you to produce; he’s telling you to stop while you still have momentum. That goes against the binge culture of creativity, where you empty yourself out in a late-night sprint and then wonder why the next day feels like crawling. By ending with more left to say, you leave a breadcrumb trail for your future self. It’s an anti-procrastination hack disguised as stoicism: make tomorrow easier by refusing today’s temptation to “finish it all.”
Context matters: Pullman is a novelist, a builder of long narrative architectures. Novels aren’t written by lightning bolts; they’re assembled by returning, again and again, to the same world. His rule enforces that return. It also acknowledges a psychological truth writers hate admitting: motivation is often the reward for starting, not the prerequisite. Pullman’s method doesn’t flatter you. It gets you back to work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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