Position yourself to succeed by doing the other things in your life that rejuvenate you. You can create little islands of time away from your novel that will help preserve your balance. Exhaustion will affect both your writing’s quality and your productivity.

The music I listen to while writing is really scene-specific. It's just a great motivator, a way to put myself in the mood.

I always try to be alert to the potential for repetition, for a decaying orbit with regard to my use of technique, etc.

History has shown us all too often the consequences of dreaming poorly or not at all.

What occurs after revelation and paralysis?

I find myself in this bizarre position in which everything I write and talk about is pretty much about this issue, the environment. It feels a little too comfortable, because at the end of the day I can rationalize that I'm doing my share. I don't know if I actually am, I don't know if I should be more of an activist than I am. But at the end of the day, everybody needs to do those things that they're most likely to continue doing, and that aren't going to burn them out.

When we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we’ve taken as reality.