All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. . . . But it’s like there’s a gap. That for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making, isn’t so good . . . it’s not quite that good. . . . If you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you gotta know it’s totally normal and the mo

Write first thing in the morning before my inner editor wakes up. She can also be pacified with a mug of hot coffee. Read the last thing I wrote before I continue. Don’t stop to fix it the new words—leave that for later. When I get stuck on a word or sentence or scene, I put a note in brackets and move on to the next thing. I go back to it later.