“Look, I’m far from military material. Undisciplined, hate authority, my ethics—perverted. But there is one military tenant I can and do get behind every time I sit down to write, and you probably know it already: ‘Embrace the suck.’ It’s going to suck, you guys. Big time. The sooner you accept that and get on with it anyway, the sooner you’re done. Why prolong your own suffering? Instead, treat it like a job. And that is trick number one: Buy a time clock. Although a bit noisy, I like the old school ones with the punch cards. Put your hours in. Two or three hours a day, whether you feel like it or not. And now that I’ve got you working, do what I do when I’m working: avoid working. Kind of. For whatever reason, writing a personal e-mail is infinitely less intimidating than a page of prose. Sometimes—when I get and stay stuck—I take some pressure off by opening up an e-mail window and writing in there instead. It helps me to think there’s less at stake. If that doesn’t do it, I change locations: desk to kitchen table, kitchen table to couch, couch to closet. I really like a dark, enclosed space. Something about it lends itself to daydreaming.”
—Matt Sumell, author of Making Nice (Henry Holt, 2015)
Photo credit: Nabil Bouacha