It is essential that you record the number of words written each session…

But you must write the requisite number of words at the set time even if you’re half-mad with worry or your heart is breaking. There is a bonus, too: Once the writing is under way, everything else disappears from the mind. But this only happens if one’s purpose is to write; it won’t happen if one’s purpose is to forget one’s troubles. The primary purpose of writing is not therapeutic.

…With part of me, I always want merely to dream, to wait to be descended upon, to be possessed and used. I have never met any professional writer who wasn’t haunted by this myth. I have never met any professional writer who didn’t work set hours.