DYLAN LANDIS: Well, when, I was a journalist working freelance, I used to think I needed a four-hour block of time because I had to stare at the screen. I had to open a vein, I had to bleed on the keyboard before I could get a perfect sentence out. Everything had to be flawless.
Then I had a baby. If I was lucky, that baby would give me 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 5 minutes. And I learned that in 10 minutes, you can write a sentence.
And then maybe later, you get another 10 minutes, and you can polish the sentence. And that was a great gift, actually. So I can write-- literally, 5, 10, minutes, I'll grab it.
I right now in fits and spurts sometimes. If I have a day, I'll write across that day if I'm in a flow. But if I want to write in fits and spurts, I'll do that, however it happens.
The key thing is that you have to be working. If the muse shows up, and you're not there, she'll split, I think. So you have to be there.
One other thing that I do on a pretty regular basis-- probably once a week-- is I get together with another writer. And we write together. It is so inspiring to look up and see someone else in focus and flow, in deep concentration, to tear those keys clicking if they're working on a laptop. And then you go you just go back into your own zone. I love doing that.