Writing Tips from James Gunn

"For writers (and probably others as well)...
While writing, I have moments of utter excitement, thrills, and inspiration, laughing out loud at what characters say and do in my office, weeping because of their hardships, and feeling as if they are speaking through me. When I'm in the pocket, I'm not a fictionist, I'm a meta-dimensional journalist, just watching what these characters do in front of me and taking it down (it would be difficult for me to be one of those guys who writes in Starbucks because I spend a lot of time laughing and crying while I'm writing, as well as a lot of time pacing around the room talking to myself in different characters' voices). Anyway, those are the good days.

On other days I wake up feeling uninspired and don't feel like writing at all. I feel like everything I write will suck. My inclination is to wait until I am in the mood. But I know, as a professional writer, my feelings are irrelevant. So I'll write anyway. It is my belief that "writer's block" is often the inability to accept that writers write because we must, not because we feel like it, or even because we like what we do. We merely put pen to paper or fingertips to keys, and go.

It really is ninety-percent effort. The magic is, with that effort, eventually inspiration will come. The paradox is you can't be looking for it.

Have a grand day. And if you don't have it right now, find it." -shared James Gunn (on Facebook)