WHAT TO DO Do a little free writing about your intended plot the way Jennie did. Then extract from that a list of as many ideas for your novel’s main problem as possible: the ones you already had a notion about, perhaps new ones that are just occurring to you now, even ones that seem far-fetched. Don’t worry about sorting them out; the goal is simply to identify as many as you can. Sure, some of them will ultimately be discarded, but it’s not just the main story problem you’re identifying here; it’s also secondary problems that it will bring to the surface and drive forward. So none of this
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