Words are capable of making experience more vivid, and also of organizing it. They can scare us, and they can comfort us.
When I transformed my random and raw words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into chapters, a semblance of order and sanity appeared where there had been only chaos and insanity.
Habits of literary composition are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectual accomplishments that a man can possess is the grand faculty of arranging his ideas. Immense privilege! I possess it. Do you?
Much of the activity we think of as writing is, actually, getting ready to write.
We like lists because we don't want to die.
I just write stuff down and pile it up, and when I get enough stuff, I spread it out and look at it and figure out how to use it.
When I'm not writing, I can't make sense of out anything. I feel the need to make some sense and find some order, and writing fiction is the only way I've found that seems to begin to do that.
There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight.
You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon.
When I'm out and about, I'll text or email myself from my phone. A smart phone is a great tool for a writer.
When I'm inspired, I jot things down and put them in a pile.
I think every writer struggles in some way with writers block. The trick is to plan out what you are going to say beforehand. I found out that if you make an outline you're much less likely to get blocked when you get into the middle of the story.
Just start writing and you'll find what you want to say.
Okay, maybe I'm not such a shitty writer. But I can't pull my ideas together, Van Houten. My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations.
We have so much inspiration. It's everywhere... So I always have a pen with me and a laptop, and I write everything down.
Even if you're just making a list of all the things you have to do, putting your pen to paper gets it out of your head. It puts you in this place of release.
Thoughts jostled for space in my crowded brain as I struggled to give them some order which might serve to motivate my listless life
Writing, for me, is the great organiser. It's while writing that I think most deeply about things.
