Ask the Author: Hilary Liftin
Answered Questions (3)
Hilary Liftin
I thought I would never write fiction because I didn't think I had the Great American Novel in me. But I'm discovering that though the fiction I can and enjoy writing will never enter the Canon, it may be entertaining--and that's enough for me. So my advice is not to aim for impossible heights, instead to go for the low-hanging fruit.
Hilary Liftin
My favorite part of being a writer is that it's the only activity in my life where I experience what people call "flow"--the feeling of being so immersed in concentration that time passes without notice. I'm otherwise more self-conscious than I would like, so losing track of myself and everything around me is liberating. Sometimes I even feel disconnected from what I'm producing, as if my brain is on auto-pilot. It's an amazing feeling that I've had since I started writing as a kid.
Hilary Liftin
I tend to label the inability to write "procrastination" instead of writer's block. It happens. But I have a very specific way of dealing with it. I set myself a goal of pages per day, and I make sure to hit the goal. The key is not to worry about quality. I guess people would call that writing your way through the block. But I'd never be able to do that without telling myself that it doesn't matter if I end up using what I produce. What's important is moving forward.
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