How Writing Works – The Writer Magazine – Jennie Vanasco

“For a good two months or so after finishing The Glass Eye, I sank into a mopey I’ll-never-write-another-book-again mode, which made me horrible to be around. So, I set a schedule for myself: between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., I’d write aimlessly, no project in mind. But unlike in the past, the rule was: only one mug of black coffee. The refill was the thing I had to look forward to when I was done. The first week, I wrote garbage and knew it was garbage. And then one morning I woke up and wrote a 1,600-word essay, start to finish. That morning felt magical. But the essay didn’t emerge mysteriously or suddenly from my unconscious mind. It took a solid week of writing badly. And that’s an important lesson – about as important, I think, as having a routine; let yourself write badly.”