Never arrive fully fed and with detailed expectations to dinner invitations. Do not pre-load your mind with exact ideas about the evening’s exact looks and tastes, my dear. Such a strategy is not only crappy, but will make both the cook and the host unhappy; and you might not only find yourself well disappointed, but also your good spirits abidingly disjointed.

Instead, arrive with one main thought, or one idea, and with an appetite that wants to be fed, just to be clear. On entrance quickly jot down your idea, like a passing drift, in just a few words, just like you would hand over your dinner party gift, or just like you would drop off your overcoat vest, and then play—with whatever conversations thereinafter manifest.

„But I’m not good at dinner parties.”

„Then your problem isn’t writer’s block. Then it might be the people, the type of parties, the type of place or setting, maybe even the language. How do you feel about going for a walk through a beautiful park?”