It has started again. This week I have kicked into gear making notes, drawing up plans and ‘brainstorming’ ideas for book number next. I put ‘brainstorming’ into quote marks because whenever I try to ‘brainstorm’ all I can think about is a flurry of brains raining down from the sky and how it’s really not a helpful thing at all – a full-sized human brain dropping from even just 20 metres above would kill anyone it lands on. Kill! So I avoid the term ‘brainstorm’.
Plus I think you need to be a mathematical genius who writes on intra-office windows in black texta to really perfect the art of ‘brainstorming’.
Instead I just think a lot and take notes in my little notebook and occasionally blurt at my housemates:
Me: Omigod, I just realised I don’t even have to let the fire hurt anyone if I give Balthazar tightrope-walking skills.
Housemate (over bowl of cereal, bits of sleep falling my eyes): Huh?
This part is possibly my favourite part of ‘the writing process’. I put ‘the writing process’ in quote marks because whenever I try to use a process to write I end up with a time management plan, a house full of tea leaves and, for some reason, the laundry done and hung out on the line.
