Author Elizabeth Benedict, editor of the recent anthology Mentors, Muses, & Monsters, discusses her experience being forced to unplug:
Finding this blank book already so full of hope and history — from Hemingway’s to my beloved sister-in-law’s — was a bit like encountering a bear in the woods: it was just the two of us, and [...]

“Stopped hanging other people’s art.”

— a journal entry by Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967)

Proof that good advice can come from anywhere: writing advice from Terminator: Salvation courtesy of The Rejectionist:

1. You need a plot. You really, really do. A Good Idea (”What if it’s the future! And robots are the boss of everything and this hot non-emotive dude has to find this kid who is actually his dad [...]

It would be criminal not to link to this great Dickens anecdote, as told on Terry Teachout’s blog; for the whole story, pick up a copy of Jane Smiley’s Charles Dickens (a Penguin Lives Biography).
Can anyone think of a kinder way to phrase Dickens’ letter, which justifies breaking a social engagement in order to write? [...]

If you need extra motivation to put more words-to-screen during a writing session, Dr. Wicked’s web app Write or Die might help. From Dr. Wicked’s site:
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, [...]

I stumbled upon this Asylum article via the ever-excellent Practicing Writing (who in turn credits Nextbook for the find): Gary Shtyengart (Absurdistan) offers sage wisdom on being a writer:
Take a lot of Xanax in the morning to really calm the hell down. Try to wake up no later than 11. Work from 11:30 to 4:30, [...]

Cory Doctorow defends the Internet, saying the worst piece of writing advice he ever received was to stay away from it. He offers some solid tips for avoiding distractions while writing and setting small, attainable daily goals.
How distracted are you by IM, skype, blogs, email, internet research etc. while trying to write? Are you more [...]

In his wonderful Nobel lecture, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio argues passionately why the writer, literature, and literacy matter in a global society, responding in particular to Stig Dagerman’s Essäer och texter. I greatly admire how this speech–like the best fiction–is at once intimate and inclusive, intensely personal yet widely relevant. Some choice excerpts:
If we [...]

Writers: if you didn’t have time for NaNoWriMo but are looking for a motivating way to structure and inspire writing time this December, consider signing up for the Southeast Review’s 30-Day Writing Regimen, which begins on December 1.
For only $15, participants receive the following: a free copy of the most recent issue (vol 26.2), [...]

Congratulations to Peter Matthiessen, whose novel Shadow Country just captured the 2008 NBA in Fiction. In this interview (conducted after his book was named a finalist), Mattheissen describes his writing process and shares why he thinks fiction matters. Interviewer Bret Anthony Johnston asked the author what the “engine” behind his novel was:
BAJ: For some [...]