“I’ve had to learn in those moments—when I’m desperate to get it right, when I’ve fought for the time to have the chance to write—not to let the defeat
of not immediately having something to say overwhelm me to the point that I give the time away. I shouldn’t start grading papers or cancel the babysitter if I don’t immediately start writing. I’ve had to learn to give myself permission to go for a long run, or walk an hour through the city, or eavesdrop on the conversation next to me for half an hour. I give myself exercises to keep my brain engaged: I’ve taken apart so many different novels trying to define their parts—characters, plot, structure; I take absurd notes that I almost never look at again in hopes of internalizing a better understanding of how books are made. ‘Writing’ is not always putting words down on the page. I think in giving myself the freedom to engage with those other parts of what it is to write, I’ve given my brain space. The space to happen upon the ideas I’ve needed to happen upon that make the words stronger, once they come.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Hold Still (Liveright, 2016)
Photo credit: Elena Megalos