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When you're stuck and you can't figure out where your plot is going, it can be debilitating. It can make you doubt everything. Your idea, your skills, why you wanted to be a writer in the first place . . . In my experience--and that's all I can really speak to!--writer's block is usually nothing magical. It's my subconscious telling me I've taken a wrong turn somewhere, and all I really need to get myself going is an old-fashioned dose of creative brainstorming.

I start by reassessing what I already know in three different ways. Invariably, long before I've reached the end of this exercise, something has sparked my interest or alerted me to the problem.

You can work through these techniques one at a time, working up to a hundred statements in one category before moving on to the next, or you can jump from category to category at whatever point you like. There are no rules, except that you keep going and keep your butt in your chair until you're itching to right or until you've had an epiphany.

Ready? Let's get started.

Technique Number One: Declarative Sentences

Write one hundred declarative sentences about whatever story element you're trying to fix. Suppose you have a character, Daisy Dull as Dirt, who you don't know well enough. Make a list of what you do know, and then keep going as inspiration strikes.

• Daisy is fifteen years old.
• Daisy hates when the different foods on her plate touch each other.
• Daisy talks too much and has no filter--she'll blurt out whatever comes to mind.
• Daisy's inability to keep her thoughts to herself get her into trouble.
• But her need to talk to people gets her back out of trouble.
• Daisy learns that she has developed the ability to talk to anyone by drawing them out of their shells.

Revelation: Daisy's babbling isn't really babbling. She is actively listening and cataloging what she learns about the people she's talking to.

That's a revelation that you can use in many different ways, and it's a skill that helps not only your plot, but also your character development from the beginning of the book. She's had to be developing those skills all along. Where can you show that in your manuscript? Sometimes, just that small change can get you out of your block. If not, keep going. You'll find more revelations as you go.

Technique Number Two: Loves and Passions

Write one hundred (you won't get there, trust me) things that your characters love or have loved in their lives, or things/causes they're passionate about or have been passionate about in the past, and state why.

• Daisy loves banana bread. She used to make it with her mother every Sunday morning, and just the smell of it reminds her of the warm kitchen and the soft Southern drawl of her mother's voice. (Wait. What happened to her mother? Why don't they do this anymore.)

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