- The concept of a good rejection letter.
- The contradictory emotions of envy and elation experienced when a friend gets “the call” from a publisher.
- How you can still believe a piece of writing is good, even after it’s been rejected 46 times.
- The truth of the following equation: butt + chair + time = writing.
- How much a form rejection letter hurts.
- Wanting honest feedback of your writing, but wanting that honest feedback to be, “It’s perfect! Don’t change a word.”
- Ideas are everywhere.
- Ideas are the easy part—it’s what you do with all those ideas that’s bloody difficult.
- Writing is really, really, really hard work—even when it looks like you’re just goofing off.
- Staring out the window for an hour is part of the writing process.
- Sometimes characters refuse to behave and insist on telling a story their way.
- Everything is fodder for writing—even the juicy secret you’re sworn to secrecy about.
- The inner critic is harsher than any outer critic could ever be.
- Sometimes scrubbing the toilet or cleaning the garage is more appealing that writing.
- Sometimes writing is more appealing than getting enough sleep or going out on the town.
- A first novel shooting straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list is just an urban myth. (It has to be, it just has to be, doesn’t it?)
- Procrastination is a crucial component of the writing process.
- Sometimes bookshelves need to be rearranged, right now.
- Having written is far more fun than writing.
- There’s always more rewriting to be done.
