Blurb of the Week 006

In general, starting can be a difficult endeavor—perhaps especially so when it comes to embarking on a new creative venture. While Taking Jezebel is still brewing in the huge vat of recently released fiction (and awaiting consensus), I've already begun plucking away at a second project: something wholly different, and inspired (in part) by my own experiences meandering through life, traveling across the country and world, questing for meaning.

Let's put the WHAT of the new novel aside for a moment and instead discuss the HOW of setting out on a writing project.

Here's an example of a quick idea-mapping exercise, wherein I asked myself the following question: "If my protagonist set out across the United States in search of a true mystic (perhaps the last), who would he meet?"

What freaks, phonies, and vagrants would he cross paths with on his journey for meaning? Where would he find the 'real deal,' or would he at all? Perhaps buried in the desert, alongside Askuwheteau and clan? Or maybe down a dark alleyway in his native New York, behind a curtain of strung magenta beads, in a room swirling with incense and brooding with ill-lit menace?

So, what works best for you when prewriting? How do you plan and outline? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.