Dear fellow writers on Twitter: How in the F are you getting anything done with the twitter news cycle the way it is right now? I've literally checked twitter 10 times while writing 1 scene. It gets me riled up, I refresh 5 times, I pull myself away and then it sucks me back in.
This is profoundly true. But your voice on the page must say exactly the right things. And since all art is mimetic, it helps to have brilliant and inspiring examples close to hand as you choose your words. Perhaps a good time to review HOOP DREAMS and AMERICAN HISTORY X.