Writing is like fishing in that you've got to have the patience to sit still long enough for serendipity to happen.

Writers are terribly superstitious. You catch a few sentences in the same place a few days in a row and suddenly you keep returning to that place certain there is a special kind of creative magic that surrounds it.

Like fishing, the writing process is boring so you have to romanticize it. Nobody in their right mind would ever fish strictly for the fish. People fish for all the shit that happens when they're not catching fish. This is how it is with writing.

You pour yourself a cup of black coffee, preferably in a heavy ceramic mug. You find a good place by a window. You cast your eyes out of it and let your mind wander. Sometimes you sit there for hours. Other times, minutes.

Eventually, you feel a snag and this becomes your first sentence.