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An army travels on its stomach,
so spear some fi sh.
Une armée marche à son estomac.
—Napoleon Bonaparte
You can’t get an army to fi ght on inspiration alone. It
has to be fed.
Nor can you wait for inspiration in your writing. As
Jack London said, you have to “light out after it with a
club.” Which means, essentially, you have to become a
walking idea factory.
And I do mean walking, because I get a lot of ideas
when I’m doing moderate exercise.
I try to take an hour walk every day and listen to an
audio book. Inevitably the “boys in the basement” send
stuff up. I carry a small notebook and pen in my back
pocket, and will stop and write down the ideas. Some-
times I record a memo on my phone. Whatever works.
Create a system for yourself that is “being creative
without thinking about it.” That way you can be “work-
ing” on your idea even when you’re not working on it.
Follow these steps:
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1. record. Get fully focused on your idea during
your writing time.
2. take a walk. You’ll fi nd ideas popping out at
you. They’re like fi sh in a stream. You are the
ancient hunter-gatherer—only you spear the fi sh
with your pen or pencil or keyboard or hand-
held recorder. You make the meal later.
3. the meal. I take my jottings or recordings and
immediately put them into a document on my
computer. I’ll expand upon them, brainstorm-
ing outward from what I have. I’ll do that with
each idea until I’m done with the list.
4. cooling. I wait until the next day to come back to
the new ideas for assessment. This gives the boys
a chance to work overnight while I’m sleeping.
5. decision. Remember, the way to get a brilliant
idea is to come up with lots of ideas, then set
aside the ones you don’t use. Set them aside, but
don’t delete them. They may come in handy in
another project entirely.
Get used to thinking this way, and your creativity
will explode.
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