The Joy of Creating NovellaMate: How Time and Stephen King Shaped Our Journey
Creating NovellaMate has been more than just a product development journey for us—it’s been a fascinating exploration of literature, time, and how words can transform our daily moments. In the process of curating over 130,000 quotes, we’ve stumbled upon something surprisingly magical: the way certain writers use time in their work.
One thing we didn’t expect while assembling our collection was that most authors rarely focus on specific times of the day. Time references, when they do appear, are often vague or general. But there’s one writer who stood out among the rest, and that writer is Stephen King.
We’ve been fans of King’s work since our college days. The Shawshank Redemption was a shared favorite, and one particular line from Andy Dufresne has stayed with us ever since:
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” That line has echoed in our minds as we’ve moved through life, and we’ve always admired how Stephen King’s writing has the ability to be so impactful.
As we dug deeper into time-related quotes for NovellaMate, we noticed something fascinating. Of all the authors, Stephen King was the one who used specific times most frequently. In fact, in our collections, more than 30 of his books contain references to exact moments in time—and not just on the hour! These non-rounded times—like 10:40 or 0:02—are often the ones that stick with us, and they’re exactly the kind of moments we wanted to capture in NovellaMate.
This realization was a turning point for us. It made us want to dive deeper into King’s works. So, as a team, we formed an impromptu book club to read one of King’s latest novels, Billy Summers, a riveting crime thriller that completely captivated us. Not only does King excel at horror, but he also masters the art of suspenseful crime fiction. The way he weaves time into his storytelling is truly something special.
One of the quotes we included in our collection came from Billy Summers:
“He closes the curtain, shutting out the view, and looks at his watch. It's twenty to eleven. How time flies when you're having fun, he thinks.”
This line really resonated with us, as it captures something universally relatable—how time seems to slip away when we’re enjoying the moment.
Reflecting on this, we realized how lucky we are to be combining something we love with what we do. By working on NovellaMate, we’re not only creating a product but also finding ourselves enriched by the process of reading, discovering, and reflecting. Every time we find a new quote, every time we hear an author’s words about time, we feel more connected to the very thing we’re building.
This journey has truly been a celebration of our love for reading, and it’s a constant reminder of why we started this project in the first place. As we move forward, we are confident that NovellaMate will bring the same joy to all the fellow book lovers out there—those who, like us, cherish the experience of discovering a quote that speaks directly to the heart, especially when it’s tied to a moment in time.
Through NovellaMate, we hope to create a space where literature itself becomes a companion to our thoughts, just as it does in the works of Stephen King and countless other writers.
So here’s to finding meaning in the moments, to enjoying the “twenty to eleven” instances, and to always remembering that time flies when you’re having fun.
Closing Thoughts:
The process of developing NovellaMate has been a journey of discovery—not just in technology and design, but in how deeply literature can connect with our lives in ways we never anticipated. We’re excited for you to experience what we’ve built, and we hope it will inspire the same love for literature and time as it has inspired in us.
