My tunnel vision allows me to have a longer work day than most writers. I'm thankful for that.

I just thought it was important that people knew right from the jump that I've got problems. But in all seriousness, that's a huge part of my writing process.

If a character is honest with a reader, then (hopefully) that will engage the reader's empathy centers; she'll meet that openness with acceptance, and they'll forge a nourishing and meaningful bond as the book continues.

I always joke that every novel is really about the same thing: one person's struggle against society.

Memoir is a unique opportunity to revisit yourself. I don't mean by memory. I mean in the revision process. You don't just write a chapter and that's it. You must constantly return to it. You must dote on it. And even if it's saying something ugly about who you are, you have to find the poetry in it. You have to find the poetry in yourself.

My tunnel vision allows me to have a longer work day than most writers. I'm thankful for that.

I'm a very tactile learner, so I need analog index cards, moving them all about, trying out various sequences for the book's architecture.