With six weeks' worth of recuperation time, you'll also be able to see any glaring holes in the plot or character development. And listen--if you spot a few of these big holes, you are forbidden to feel depressed about them or to beat up on yourself. Screw-ups happen to the best of us.

Upon being asked by a fan how to become a writer, Stephen King replied, "Write.

Hearts are tough, Most times they don't break. Most times they are only bend

You learned to accept, or you ended up in a small room writing letters home with Crayolas.

Any thoughts of guilt, any feelings of regret, had faded. The desert had baked them out.

When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.

I've never seen novels as built things. I have a tendency to see them as found things so that I always feel a little bit like an archaeologist who's working to get some fragile fossil out of the ground. And the more you get out unbroken, the better you succeed.