I Am At My Worst Trying To

I'm Very Interested In The Way The Internet Has Changed Teenage Life. Obviously It's Very Different From When I Grew Up, When There Weren't Even Answering Machines, Much Less Computers. I Was Telling My Children This The Other Day, And The Little One Said, "did You Have Electricity, Mom?" And I Was Like Okay, Enough, Kid.

A Bit Of Theory As We Settle Down For Lunch: The Waiter's Treatment Of Kitty Is Actually A Kind Of Sandwich, With The Bottom Bread Being The Bored And Slightly Effete Way He Normally Acts With Customers, The Middle Being The Crazed And Abnormal Way He Feels Around This Famous Nineteen-year-old Girl, And The Top Bread Being His Attempt To Contain And Conceal This Alien Middle Layer With Some Mode Of Behavior That At Least Approximates The Bottom Layer Of Boredom And Effeteness That Is His Norm.

The Bottom Line Is That I Like My First Drafts To Be Blind, Unconscious, Messy Efforts; That's What Gets Me The Best Material.

I've Never Been That Confident. I Don't Tend To Think, Swaggeringly, I'm Going To Ace This. It's Just Not Who I Am.

I Haven’t Had Trouble With Writer’s Block. I Think It’s Because My Process Involves Writing Very Badly. My First Drafts Are Filled With Lurching, Clichéd Writing, Outright Flailing Around. Writing That Doesn’t Have A Good Voice Or Any Voice. But Then There Will Be Good Moments. It Seems Writer’s Block Is Often A Dislike Of Writing Badly And Waiting For Writing Better To Happen.