One passage that I found interesting within  the text occurs on page 15 when the author states, “If you want to be a great writer and you have a choice between being brilliant and lazy or being a little clueless but motivated, choose the latter” (Gotham Writer’s Workshop, 15). The author never states that writer’s are created, never born. A writer’s success is attributed to how hard they work and how consistently they write. I found this inspirational due to the fact that I desire to become a writer one day, writing screenplays, telefilms, and eventually novels. When writing, I sometimes feel like everything is forced and that everything I write is inadequate compared to the work of other writers. This passage kind of reaffirmed my want to write; it reminded me that hard work will pay off and my skills will develop.

Another passage that I found interesting occurred on page 16: “There are really two kinds of writing time, what I call hard time and soft time. Hard time refers to what is normally thought of as ‘writing’-at the computer screen or typewriter or pad of paper…Soft time refers to the time when you are not actually writing but pondering your work” (Gotham Writer’s Workshop, 16). When writing, I feel like I contemplate my work more so than I actually write; I feel this need to figure out the entirety of the story in my head before I begin writing. As the author states, both forms of writing are needed, however they need to be balanced. I always felt like pondering a story was ineffective and that it wasn’t helpful because I hadn’t actually written anything. I felt guilty for having more soft time than hard time during writing. After reading this passage, I feel a little bit better about soft writing. However, it also reminds me that although I have soft times in writing, I need to include more hard time, actually sitting in front of my computer and actually writing something.

Page 14 has another passage that I find interesting: “Life is a blur in which it is difficult to see anything clearly because a zillion things are going on all at once. Art is all about sharp focus (Gotham Writer’s Workshop, 14). I found this to be a deep passage. Although this text is focused on teaching creative writing, the author manages to include passages that are profound, making this textbook completely different than any other textbook that I have read. This passage helps explain what we are trying to do with our stories: have a sharp focus on an aspect of this confusing and difficult thing that we call life.