Ask the Author: Peter Van Buren
Answered Questions (4)
Peter Van Buren
I try very hard to discipline myself to write everyday. I don't set goals, like two pages, but do almost always get something down. Some days that may be as little as an email to myself with some ideas, written on the bus, some days a couple of pages in front of the computer. It's the habit that matters.
Peter Van Buren
I'm pretty lucky in that I usually don't have writer's block per se, where I can't get anything down. I do have "idea block," where I find I cannot get the plot from Point F to Point G for some reason. When that happens, I'll often skip to another part of the story, or write in something crazy ("They walked from Japan to Hawaii") as a place-holder. Sometimes that crazy thing will get my brain moving again.
Peter Van Buren
Write. It sounds so silly, but I run into so many people with so much to say, and then they don't sit down and WRITE. So just start. Start in the middle. Write the surprise ending. Get words down on paper. Never stop!
Peter Van Buren
I spoke with veterans, some of whom I lived alongside during a year in Iraq scarred by two soldier suicides. Many I spoke with talked about suffering in ways they had a hard time describing but which they wrestled with everyday. They told me they went away to fight with the idea "we're the good guys." They spoke of a depth of guilt and shame when that good guy idea did not survive the test of events. We know these feelings now as moral injury.
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