I suggest you try to read the inside back page of the November 2013 issue of The Writer. I picked up a couple of issues of The Writer at my public library a few weeks ago and this interview of Towles by Hillary Casavant was in one of them.

Towles–author of Rules of Civility–tells us what none of us want to hear: writing takes practice, practice, practice and is more about perspiration than inspiration.

Darn.

Towles revised his first novel for seven years before abandoning it. For Rules of Civility he gave himself one year to write it by taking a week to write each chapter then a week to revise it. He then did three revisions in three years seeking “economy”. Writing, he says, is a craft.

Okay, guess I’ll just roll up my sleeves more often and just write. How about you?