Readers are voracious and always looking for new things to devour. But your writing isn’t for them, its for you. Every page is slowly honing your craft, getting your ideas onto paper, and turning an amorphous idea blob into a tangible story.

I hate when people tell me this but annoyingly it works, but sometimes ‘just write’ is a solid strategy to just start putting words on the page. Sometimes its rough and you’ll want to go back to edit it, sometimes seeing things start to flow is a great feeling, and the words get easier.

The other trick is spite. Just lots of spite. Spite for the sometimes terrible writing that gets published anyways, spite for the reader who you might lure into falling into love with a character you plan to brutally murder, and spite for the music player that can’t seem to find the right song to match your mood for the scene you’re writing.

Any shows that feature other cats or birds. They get pretty interested pretty quick.