Taking the Fifth Amendment

If somebody asks you what you are writing about, don't answer.  It's a question I go into contortions to avoid.  Change the subject, take the fifth, do what ever is necessary in order to keep schtum.  Even close the door in your questioner's face...

The reason for this is that the first telling of your story will always be the best, so you should put it down on paper before squandering it elsewhere.  Something is lost in the retelling.  Perhaps it's because you're trying to recapture the freshness and immediacy of your original vision. I take this to the nth degree and try not to even think about a key scene before I'm ready to write it, because I know that some of the energy will be dissipated, or I will get diverted by trying to remember that defining phrase which came to me a few days earlier.

Keeping your work private and secret conjures some illicit magic - it's a bit like having an affair, where the object of your obsession and desire is your own imagination.  Narcissistic, I know, but in its own mysterious way it seems to work...