We all have them, ideas that come to us at the most unexpected times, while waking up or taking the shower or driving somewhere, or walking the dog. There is that moment, a pause, ask then like lightning you hear it and see it, and in that moment you’re exuberant. 

This is the best idea ever!

The problem with ideas is, they’re a dime a dozen, and most people do nothing about them. You can have a million ideas and not a single book written.

You can go high up to major story acts, or drill deep down to individual sentences, but no matter which way you go...

...every single structural elements of your story must trigger the next element, and the next, and the next, like domino tiles that took you months if not years to assemble, and that with a single push of a finger will topple over one another in the perfect, fluid, unbreakable chain until the very end. 

Remaining calm allows you to write the scariest, most unsettling things. Often it’s nearly impossible to remain calm while writing. So how to do it?

View the things that happen in your story not as what you feel NOW, but as what your readers will feel LATER.

By having your phone turned on you’re making yourself accessible to other people. Think about that for a moment. Think about the times when you didn’t have a phone, when you were a kid (if you’ve lived in those times). Furthermore, by having your phone always on you you’re making yourself accessible to other people ALL THE TIME.

Now pretend you don’t have a phone. Pretend no such thing exists. And imagine that every step of your life, every step of your day, you have someone trailing behind you, and next to you, and ahead of you, and occasionally (or constantly) they poke you. Ask you questions. Tell you things. Nudge you. Smile at you. Frown at you. Or even worse, yell at you. Tell you stories you don’t want to hear.

By "poorly written" I don't mean shortcoming in terms of literary merits. That's a different discussion. What I mean is a story that doesn't move YOU. (It might've moved other people, but it left YOU cold).

When you read a book that you set aside in disgust or disappointment, or you watch a movie that you pause and can't finish watching (or walk out of the movie theater), I invite you to take some distance from it (a day or two), then come back to it and try it again and analyze why is it that you didn't care for it.