Elizabeth Strout: It's Okay to Write Badly

I’m finding the the website Lit Hub can be an interesting and helpful spot for writers (me, specifically) to lurk and seek new ideas for the how and why of writing.

This morning I found a little interview of Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again. Below are two points that stuck out for me:

Q: Who do you most wish would read your book?

A: The person I most want to read my book is the person who needs that book at the time he or she or they reads it. I think the right book at the right time in a person’s life can help them in ways I will never know. That would be my wish.

Q: What time of day do you write?

A: I write after I’ve had my breakfast because that is when my mind seems sharpest. (I am not an early riser). But I will often go back to it in the afternoon to see if the work is okay, and often it is not.