What is your method for overcoming writer’s block?
The only way I know to overcome block is just to write, anything even if you think it's rubbish. The hardest thing is to start, and when you come to an awkward spot in a manscript and can't think which way to go, just take any fork in the road and it'll take you somewhere useful, even if it's just to realize that you're going the wrong way.
What are your favorite or most helpful writing prompts?
Just sitting in front of the screen and pulling the keyboard towards me. And, of course, the realization that the deadliine you thought was August 1st was actually the previous April 1st. That'll do it every time.
What is the most valuable advice you received as a young writer?
The words of Anthony Trollope who wrote ten thousand words every morning before starting a full day's work at the Post Office—he said writing was no different from mending shoes. They were both jobs of work. I still find that a very valuable reminder, not to mention a cure for hubris. We're not doing anything grand or even special, just doing as a cobbler would do, one page, one shoe, at a time.
