A few excerpts from
The Courage to Write, by Ralph Keyes (Henry Holt and Company, 1995):
A state of anxiety is the writer's natural habitat. Yet those who live there are seldom bold. . . . This leads to the psychic conundrum that writers often note in themselves; 'a combination of an almost obscene self-confidence and an ongoing terror,' John Barth called it.
And:
Identify the time of day when you feel bravest and trying to write then is an essential aspect of fear management. . . . 'In the night I am constantly haunted by what I am trying to realize,' said Monet. 'I rise broken with fatigue each morning. But the coming of the dawn gives me courage.'
