MARK JARMAN: This is hard, because I, one of the pieces of advice I give to students is, your writing processes has to be very personal. I tell them what I do, but I also add the caveat, this works for me. You have to figure out what works for you.
The advice I give them, though, has more to do with commitment than any talent they might have. I've had very talented students who didn't go on to be writers. And I've had less talented students who understood the commitment they had to make.
And that's what I say. So I do try to urge them, try to make it a daily habit. Try to make it part of your routine. Try to make it something for which you just naturally make time. And then you'll see what might occur. That's the advice I give.
I work in a cheap spiral notebook with a cheap pen. I've done that since I was 15. But that works for me. I don't recommend it to anybody else. I say, don't fetishized your tools. And yet, I always have to have a cheap spiral notebook and a cheap pen.
So but the most, that's the most important advice. Working with graduate students, I'm already working with people who have made a commitment to writing. And I simply try to be there to help them become themselves fully.