When I’m struggling to write, it’s typically because I haven’t absorbed enough literature. It is also more difficult when you don’t have a consistent writing practice and you do a lot of stopping and starting. I’m not saying you have to write at the same time every day or that it has to be some formal arrangement, but you do have to find a routine that works for you and keeps you fed creatively. For me, that is keeping a reading notebook. For every book that I read, I collect words for a word bank, take notes on meaningful quotes, and write down any ideas that come to me. After reading a book I challenge myself to write something using the copious notes I’ve gathered. The fresh language and quotes create a foundation that I can build on, which gets rid of that daunting moment of dealing with the blank page. Oftentimes starting is the hardest part. So the question becomes: How can we make the starting easier? When you figure that out, you really smooth out a significant portion of the process.
—Taylor Byas, author of Resting Bitch Face (Soft Skull Press, 2025)