I have piles of editing to do, but I also need to keep up with my writing group. So this week's push was to write two chapters. Yes, just two. And I just couldn't figure out what to write next that didn't repeat all that had gone on before. So I'd write two or three lines to nudge the action forward then stop and stare at the screen. I'm just not an outliner. It works best for me to brainstorm a bit before I sit to write just so I know what's about to happen, then I sit and write. But I haven't brainstormed recently. So that blank page loomed large all week.
Then I did what I should have done in the first place, which was go to my brain trust. It's a middle-grade fiction book, so I took my questions to my middle-grade kids. What happens next? They came up with a forward pathway right away. Duh. When all else fails, do the obvious: brainstorm. Talk it through. And that, my friends, is the path through the cold, white desolation of the blank page.
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