For one hundred days, I’m going to post a writing tip each day. I have a whole bookshelf full of writing books and I want to do some reading and increased studying of this valuable resource. This will help me keep track of anything I’ve learned, and help motivate me to keep going. If anyone has a favorite tip of their own to add, contact me. I’d love to put it up here.

Today’s tip – Stay In Touch With That Hunger

Source – Writing the Novel by Lawrence Block

There is a hunger at the root of all our creative work, whether it is for wealth or recognition or a sense of accomplishment or some tangible proof that we are not worthless human beings after all. To return to an earlier metaphor, we might call that hunger the yeast that starts that dark ferment working down in the unconscious.

If we can stay in touch with that hunger, the pot will keep bubbling-and ideas that engage us will continue rising to the surface.

That all sounds well and good – but I guarantee you that a few days of staring at a blank page in a typewriter (or those white LEDs on the screen) will often seem to prove that the writer is indeed a worthless human being.