If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Well I was all hyped up to respond to this excellent question, Howard, till I read Caleb's post and he stole all my thunder...
So, my answer is, I have no earthly idea! Sometimes I feel like it's a miracle I've ever written anything at all, because I so do not understand how that has happened.
I used to work pretty hard at the "having ideas / being creative" end of things. Now ideas are constantly coming to me and it's more a crowd control issue, making room in my brain for the ones with potential, so they can percolate there for a while, and letting the others just dissolve away.
I think it has to do a lot with what Caleb said: working at it, keeping after it, Butt in Chair and all that.
And then the magic part of it that can't be explained, which is the scary part to me. Well, scary but exciting. Right now, I'm experimenting with embracing the magic and trying to actually gain some small bit of control (perhaps influence is a better word) over it, via a Boston Red Sox cap that I only wear when writing.
I realize that may sound insane but so far, it's working for me.
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but so far, it's working for me.
