Mike Jasper posted an entry about NPR's Novel Ideas and answered the same questions NPR is asking various authors. He also asked for answers from his fellow writers. Here's mine.

How I Write:

Sometimes I'll have a forty-five minute session and write as much as I can as fast as I can, take a fifteen minute break, then another forty-five minute session. I'll do anywhere from one to six sessions like this.

Another method is shooting for five hundred words in a half hour, and doing it every day.

Timed sessions or goals keep me focused. Otherwise I might just sit in front of the computer daydreaming the time away. I've had many years with that bad bad habit.

Oh. One more thing. Coffee. It always goes good with writing.


Writer's Block Remedies:

I don't have any. Avoidance is my problem. Avoidance leads to writing inertia. Once the inertia sets in it's tough to begin again. Writing every day or most days is the key, but honestly I miss days, sometimes weeks. Then I just work my way back on the writing horse.

A Favorite Sentence:

Like Mike, I don't remember my favorites. Perhaps I don't have favorites. Here's one picked somewhat randomly: "Something had been thrown into the mechanism of her being, jamming the gears, fracturing cogs, knocking other gears off their pinions."

Thanks, Mike, for the link to the NPR site.

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We're off to Orycon in the morning (Saturday). I don't have any panels until tomorrow. Plus we're saving money by cancelling one night's stay in the hotel. So there!

Have a great weekend!