“I sit down in front of my computer with my first cup of coffee before I’m fully awake. I hope that something exciting will come out of these liminal moments before I’m aware of the expectancy and stress of writing.
The moment I hit a roadblock, I take a shower. I want to move as far away from my computer as possible so I don’t over-think the problem I’ve encountered and undermine the joy of writing so early in my day. I stay in the shower longer than is necessary, shocking my body into awareness, and calming my mind with the knowledge that I’m not forcing it to work at the moment. Soon that first problem will resolve itself and I’ll have to dash out of the bathroom still damp and rush to my desk. As my writing session draws to a close, usually because I’ve bumped up against some fresh obstacle, I usually want to take another inspirational shower. But that seems weird. So I go for a drive. I live in Los Angeles, so I’m always driving somewhere. Again, I try to get as far away from my work as possible, into a place where it’s impossible to work. That’s when my ideas usually take shape. I don’t listen to music in the car, but let my mind wander and often it stumbles across a way to untangle whatever mess tripped me up and ended my writing day.”
—Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street (Dennis Lehane Books, 2013)