The most important thing, though, is to figure out how you write—whether you’re a page-a-day-at-nine-a.m. slogger or a burst writer who can crank out ten thousand words in one marathon session at the computer but then has to sit around doing nothing for a week or two in order to recharge.

Or there’s the sort who sort of graze constantly, producing a paragraph here and a sentence there all through the day or week, feeling as if you aren’t getting anything done until you get to Friday and notice that you have written an entire chapter when you “weren’t working.”

f you just look slantwise at normal, everyday things, it becomes a habit after a while, and pretty soon you have more ideas than you know what to do with.