How did you become a writer?
Becoming -- I think I'm still becoming a writer. Each morning I force myself back to the writing desk. It's always a struggle. I think that's the key though: seat time and (occasionally) winning the ongoing battle against self-doubt and worry, external discouragement and one's insecurities. That conscious decision each morning (sometimes it's the afternoon, if I can't bring myself to face it earlier) to do something other than staying in bed has made me more of a writer than anything else. That, and delusions of wanting to write the Next Great American Novel. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
I always default to pre- and post-war fiction. Graham Greene, Philip Roth, Annie Dillard, John Dos Passos, Thomas Wolfe. Those are my comfort reads. All the contemporary nonfiction I read feels more like research/work. Throughout the years I've also cobbled together a self-study by reaching out to professors and writers I admire to help turn me toward books and authors I haven't yet discovered. They've also been keen readers and I give my deepest thanks to John Stauffer who took me in and guided me in the writing of my recent book, “Troubled.”

When and where do you write?
My working schedule changes, though I have one outlined in my calendar. Given any month I may be working on three very different forms of journalism, alongside several other projects spread across different genres. The seat time yields something no matter what, even if I wasn't feeling particularly up to writing before committing to the project at hand. Bursts of an hour-and-a-half are ideal, and when I'm lucky that turns into three hours which seem to vanish. It's easy to lose time in the office where I write, a former woodshed I converted in the summer of 2019 into a library-writing studio-machinist shop with casual views of the Dolomites.

What are you working on now?
I'm adapting my latest book into a feature film while struggling to finish and start new longform journalism projects.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
Never. I don't have that luxury. The block is usually external.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Something to the effect of, "If you keep going and don't give up, others will."

What’s your advice to new writers?
See above. And find writers whose professional and personal lives you admire and respect. Then do what they do.

Kenneth R. Rosen is the author, most recently, of Troubled: The Failed Promise of America's Behavioral Treatment Programs.