What is your method for overcoming writer’s block?
Sitting down and putting your fingers on the keyboard. If you have to tie yourself to your chair, do it. Just start. Word-by-word.
What are your favorite or most helpful writing prompts?
I don't use prompts, to be honest. If I need inspiration I read a great writer. Or I think about my deadlines or my bills. And I always try to remember how it feels when I write something I know took flight, something that surpasses my own intellect, something that somehow soared out of me. And I remember how good it feels to type The End.
What is the most valuable advice you received as a young writer?
I believe it was a book called Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. And I'm paraphrasing but basically she said if you're writing crap, just think of it as practice writing. This simple idea lifted an enormous amount of pressure off me. And Hemmingway's quote. "The first draft of anything is shit." This reminded me that sometimes you just have to let go and let it fly out. Get the words down. Fix it later. But you have to be fearless while you build your foundation.
