Have you tried spider diagrams? They're supposed to help, even if they do take up a lot of time when you're trying to find 17 different coloured felt-tip pens for 17 different trains of thought. I've found the best way to get the writing juices flowing is to talk at someone, allowing your ideas to tumble out of your mouth, whether or not they make any sense to your audience. Then you can separate out the crap ones from the more useable ones, and expand on stuff as you go (although I do believe that crap ideas should always be kept to one side, just in case). However, I've never tried to write a whole book before, so these pearls may be utterly redundant...
Alternatively, blog them all down. Then cut and paste them all into one usable manuscript. I mean, how long can a Grove book be? Three blogs..? Four..?
Ray,
It's a good suggestion and several others have voiced a similar idea. It seems absurd that I can churn out blog posts easily but the book thing eludes me. Not that bothered though as blogging is sooooooo much more fun :-)
Have you tried spider diagrams? They're supposed to help, even if they do take up a lot of time when you're trying to find 17 different coloured felt-tip pens for 17 different trains of thought. I've found the best way to get the writing juices flowing is to talk at someone, allowing your ideas to tumble out of your mouth, whether or not they make any sense to your audience. Then you can separate out the crap ones from the more useable ones, and expand on stuff as you go (although I do believe that crap ideas should always be kept to one side, just in case). However, I've never tried to write a whole book before, so these pearls may be utterly redundant...
Thanks Tessa :-)
Alternatively, blog them all down. Then cut and paste them all into one usable manuscript. I mean, how long can a Grove book be? Three blogs..? Four..?
Ray,
It's a good suggestion and several others have voiced a similar idea. It seems absurd that I can churn out blog posts easily but the book thing eludes me. Not that bothered though as blogging is sooooooo much more fun :-)