Ask the Author: Mark Todd
Answered Questions (3)
Mark Todd
Writer's block is fundamentally a fear of failure. I've always loved Natalie Goldberg's advice from WRITING DOWN THE BONES on this score: Give yourself permission to fail sometimes. Writing is drafting and revising -- developing characters, redirecting plots, rearranging words and then chsnging or adding new ones. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Let ideas and stories unfold and listen to the words.
Mark Todd
Writing isn't driven by inspiration but by deadlines. I learned that as a journalist. But inspiration for me is a result of insatiable curiosity about the world -- about ideas, people, events -- and then following the what-if questions that surface, scribbking out possibilites that sometimes turn into stories.
Mark Todd
For fiction, it's making things up with impunity to create worlds readers want to believe anyway. For nonfiction, it's the impunity to ask strangers questions that reveal answers better than you hoped for.
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