Occasionally, if I'm in a rut, I find changing location helps.
I love the anxiety, the pressure of the loud room full of yapping kids. But I'm a kid myself.
I grew up in the suburbs among highly educated people, in a house crammed with books. It was a culture rich in ideas, stimulation, entertainment, and mental activity, all helpful to the nurture of an imaginative child who wanted from an early age to be a writer.
Music has a tremendous effect on me. When it's playing, I can't think or do anything other than listen. But I can write to it.
Time for creative ideation and quiet reflection is as much a luxury as is the physical beauty of the space you live in.
I always want to be able to be in a room where I know I'm going to be entertained and challenged.
I usually write away from home, in coffee shops, on trains, on planes, in friends' houses. I like places where there's stuff going on that you can lift your eyes, see something interesting, overhear a conversation.
Don't dumb it down. The audience is smart and gets what you are doing.
