Writer's unblock

(1955 April 28)

Next problem. The only way I ever found to lick that stuff was will pwer. You get good and tough with yourself and you say (as for instance when you should be writing something and you think to yourself, "I'll sit down and have a cigaret and think it over for a while") you say, "Come On Kay! Commence!" and before your bottom ever hits the easy chair, you lower it purposefully into the typing chair and you commence.

I can imagine how things are piling up that must be done and in. My advice on that is do them fast and get a B rather than much detail work and an A. Get the thing all organized and speed up on it. Try to speak freer, write freer. To hell with syntax and sentence structure. You should let your ideas come tumbling out of you fast. This will give your work a freshness. I mean this. Otherwise you will soon read like one of these professors with a long white beard.