Pulling The Plug

I stare at my two year old novel in disbelief. I wrote this? The horror, the horror! It's broke all the way through, unfixable. Then the heroine, who's taking a bath, reaches out for the chain with her toes and pulls the plug. And suddenly she's alive again and I can write dialogue for her and the old joy-in-creation has returned.

Better Than Drugs

Writing is better than drugs. You go through that door and you're making your own world. No, that's wrong; it makes itself and you're just there to ensure that certain rules- grammar, plausibility- are being observed.

Only sometimes you can hammer and hammer on that door and it won't open.