by

Tim Ferriss

How to Start When You’re Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration — Creative Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott and More (#878)

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This is a special compilation devoted to a subject very close to my heart and currently consuming a large percentage of my waking hours: writing. Over the years, I’ve asked some of the writers I admire most questions like: How do you choose a project and stay with it? How do you begin when inspiration refuses to show up? How do you build a practice that reliably produces pages? And how do you keep going when you fear your pages are terrible? Listen in to some of my favorite authors answer these and other questions. Please enjoy this special compilation on the craft of writing.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

  • ProLon science-backed Fasting Mimicking Diet that helps activate cellular renewal through fasting, while still eating nourishing meals
  • AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement
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How to Start When You're Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration — Creative Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott and More

Additional podcast platforms

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Transcripts

Show Notes

Connect with Elizabeth Gilbert:

Website | Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram | Newsletter

Elizabeth’s appearances on the podcast: 770, 430

Connect with Anne Lamott:

X | Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram

Anne’s appearance on the podcast: 522

Connect with Joyce Carol Oates:

X | Bluesky | Facebook | Newsletter

Joyce’s appearance on the podcast: 497

Connect with Jerry Seinfeld:

Website | X | Facebook | Instagram

Jerry’s appearance on the podcast: 485

Connect with Mary Karr:

Website | X | Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram

Mary’s appearance on the podcast: 479

Connect with Brandon Sanderson:

Website | X | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Brandon’s appearance on the podcast: 794

Connect with Seth Godin:

Website | Seth’s Blog | X | Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram

Seth’s appearances on the podcast: 792, 476, 402, 343, 177, 138

Books

Recommended Reading, Listening, & Viewing

Movies & TV

People

Timestamps

  • [00:00:00] Start.
  • [00:01:52] Elizabeth Gilbert: Choosing the project, committing to it.
  • [00:06:25] Anne Lamott: Shitty first drafts, bird by bird.
  • [00:13:03] Joyce Carol Oates: Don’t wait for mood, just work.
  • [00:15:47] Jerry Seinfeld: The session, the alarm, the system.
  • [00:26:27] Mary Karr: Revision, throwing out 1,200 pages.
  • [00:35:07] Brandon Sanderson: Consistency, word counts, output.
  • [00:45:04] Seth Godin: Bad writing can’t persist if you do enough of it.

Quotations from This Episode

“Meditation, spirituality, and art have so much in common.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“All first drafts of any book you’ve ever read by the authors you esteem most began as unreadable first drafts.”

— Anne Lamott

“Life doesn’t have to be so overthought. You don’t have to wait to be inspired. Just start working.”

— Joyce Carol Oates

“Nobody writes all day. Shakespeare can’t write all day. It’s torture.”

— Jerry Seinfeld

“Every writer I know has written a bad book. So maybe it’s just going to be a bad book, but it’s the book that’s standing in line to be written.”

— Mary Karr

“Most people are better served by writing a certain amount every day really consistently, or at least two or three times a week, and building a novel out of good habits.”

— Brandon Sanderson

“Bad writing over time, if you do enough of it, can’t persist. Good writing will slip through. I learned this from Isaac Asimov … [who] published 400 books back when it was hard to publish a book.”

— Seth Godin

Want to hear another episode with someone who has spent a lifetime wrestling the demon of the blank page? Listen to my conversation with novelist and The War of Art author Steven Pressfield, in which we discussed overcoming “Resistance with a capital R,” the many faces of self-sabotage, his journey from blue-collar truck driver to bestselling novelist, the hero’s journey versus the artist’s journey, morning routines and a “little successes” approach, shadow careers, why the process that works for Joyce Carol Oates might be all wrong for you, fear-setting, and much more.

This episode is brought to you buy ProLon! One name that has come up on this podcast more than once is Dr. Valter Longo, a USC professor with decades of peer-reviewed research on fasting, nutrition, and aging. I regularly fast and have done a lot of experiments with fasting over more than a decade, and it has been one of the most incredible unlocks that I have found for both near- and long-term physical and mental health.

But fasting can be really hard, and that is why Dr. Longo, best known for the Fast Mimicking Diet (FMD), developed ProLon. For 5 days, you’re able to get the benefits of fasting—including autophagy, your body’s cellular, self cleanup process—all while eating real, structured, plant-based meals. In scientific studies, 5-day cycles of the Fast Mimicking Diet improved markers tied to metabolic health and biological aging and helped people drop fat while holding onto lean muscle. And ProLon makes it easy: it comes in one box, everything is clearly laid out, and there’s no guesswork. For a limited time, Prolon is offering my listeners 15% off site wide, plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-day program. Just visit ProLonLife.com/Tim.

This episode is brought to you by AG1. I’ve taken AG1 for more than a decade. Longtime listeners have heard me call it my nutritional insurance. Here’s the news: they’ve just launched AG1 Pro, designed for people focused on performance and longevity. I’ll be traveling soon, and I’m throwing this in my bag to cover my bases while I travel. Past a certain age, maintaining lean muscle becomes priority number one, and AG1 Pro is formulated to support exactly that. It includes HMB, a clinically studied compound that supports protein synthesis and helps reduce protein breakdown, plus zinc carnosine to support the gut lining. Remember: training is only half the equation. Recovery is where the work compounds, and AG1 Pro is built to support it. It’s NSF Certified for Sport, so what’s on the label is what’s in the pouch. Get your free AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in the Welcome Kit at Drinkag1.com/Tim.

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