Yesterday's Writer's Almanac featured (among other birthday boys) my favorite living essayist, John McPhee, with a comment that reflects his patient craftsmanship:

McPhee has published more than 25 books, even though he rarely writes more than 500 words a day. He once tried tying himself to a chair to force himself to write more, but it didn't work. He said, "People say to me, 'Oh, you're so prolific.' God, it doesn't feel like it — nothing like it. But you know, you put an ounce in a bucket each day, you get a quart."

... which reminds me of the Latin (Ovid) aphorism, "Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit" — "Add little to little and there will be a big pile." (Like this ^zhurnal!?)

(cf. SenseOfWhereYouAre (4 Jun 1999), WorldTradeCenter (11 Sep 2001), SiteSuggestions (2004-07-08), IndianRiver (30 Jul 2004), MardiGras (5 Oct 2005), ...) - ^z - 2008-03-09

(correlates: InMyJournal, SiteSuggestions, Twitter Poetry, ...)