Approach the species with care! But remember, they’re only human! — My toughest interview ever was with a dog named Biff, whom I had decided to profile for the New Yorker. I persuaded his owners that I needed time alone with the dog so I could really get a feel for his personality, so they left us for an hour or…

(With apologies to Stephen Covey, of course.) (But lists of habits really do work!) — Writing is a mysterious practice, so the best thing you can do is to apply logic and systems wherever you can. You can’t conjure a perfect sentence using some practice or program, but you can create an environment in which the likelihood of you being able to create that sentence…

How asking yourself this question often can help you do it better — I’ve been writing for a living my entire working life. I did a brief stint waiting tables (something I think everyone should do at some point in their life, for all the lessons you will learn about time management, food, the treatment of service people, and how to charm your…

No, seriously. This is how to do it. For real. — When I got my first book contract, a million years ago, I kept myself busy for several years researching and reporting, and then sat down to write the book and of course, came to a screeching halt. Compared to writing, reporting had seemed easy: I knew what I need to…

And why you need to ignore it to do your best work — The other day, I posted on Twitter, “Is there a writer alive who doesn’t suffer from imposter syndrome?” and received a thunder of replies. I didn’t even need to explain what I meant by “imposter syndrome”. It’s firmly planted in the vernacular, and everyone seems to instantly understand (and be…

It’s half instinct, half necessity, and half strategy — This story is behind Medium’s membership paywall, which means the writer earns through our Partner Program. To become a Medium member, click here. I think of myself as having two jobs. One is (to steal a term from the corporate toolbox) very outward-facing: It’s an exploratory, fact-finding enterprise. It’s where…

She taught us to tell the stories that made us uncomfortable — Once in a while, you read something that is so indelible in its tone and temperament that it immediately changes what you imagine writing is all about. That is how it was for me with Joan Didion. It’s not that I recognized myself in her writing, which is why you…

Don’t overdo it and don’t underdo it — I love compliments of any sort, but I’m always a little thrown off when people compliment me on the quotes in my stories. In a way, I don’t feel I deserve credit for simply presenting what other people have said, but I’ve come to realize using quotes is a lot…

God is definitely in the details — This story is behind Medium’s membership paywall, which means the writer earns through our Partner Program. To become a Medium member, click here. It’s stating the obvious to say that details are everything, but I’ll go ahead and state it: Details really are everything. People read to get the big…