Ground Floor,Baby!!

I just finished a first draft of a novel. Beyond the endless edits that I can look forward to, there is something mote terrifying.  

The next first draft.

I'm blessed in that my writers blocks come from HOW to write a story, not WHAT to write about.

I'd like to humblebrag about having an overactive imagination and an secret idea factory that throw out shooting star visions like so much metameme mana from heaven. 

Nope.  For me, I keep several books and files around so I can jot down some ideas. I don't judge them, I only record them.  I just wish mine were as cool looking as Guillermo Del Toro's sketchbook. Now there's a walking idea man!

When time opens up in my schedule, I look them over and see if any of them catch my eye. With some distance between inspiration and assessment, I find that my opinion changes over time. A lame dramatic idea might now be a fun comedy piece, or something great is just repeat idea that I covered somewhere else.

I'm not a slave to these note, though. Sometimes a good idea just spins out of a conversation or a daydream. It doesn't hurt that some of these conversations are with other creative people. I'm sure John Grisham finds his muse reading the Daily Business Review.

Me, not so much.

There are times when I take on a challenge and a deadline to see what I come up with. Submitting to an open call for a themed anthology has indefinably make you stretch your imaginary muscles.

And sometimes you have to have faith in yourself to go down the rabbit hole. Sometimes you have to figure out what works by actually putting in some elbow grease and crossing your fingers before you hit the switch.