Much like C.Evil says, my novel is certainly not set in stone. Formulating a beginning and possible end seems to fill in the gaps when I'm focused on other things. Usually if I turn my attention away from the brainstorming, that's when the storming actually happens.

I understand anyone's frustration when they can't seem to concentrate. I had such a problem last night upon starting a chapter of my current work. With the T.V. blasting highlights of football games that I know my girlfriend cares little about, I found no concentration at all. I swear she does that just to mess with me :P

I found myself with a quiet morning today, as I usually do, since she sleeps in on her days off, and with it came a nice flow of thoughts and words that worked well enough to start a good chapter. You just have to be patient in your work, and good things usually come from that. Brainstorming is not a set of laws that you have to abide by, it's a tool to utilize. Just because you can't seem to get anything done by following the guidelines of the challenge, doesn't mean you're not accomplishing anything.

Everyone's mind works differently. I tend to place everything into a mathematical context, I calculate possible outcomes and formulas and then go from there. Others circle ideas on a peice of paper and branch out with different concepts of what the original could bring to their writing.

For me, my most successful writing comes from not planning a thing. I sit down, write a few words, and I go from there. My entire book currently was written like this. There is now a planned endpoint and plot, but at the beginning, I just sat, wrote a few lines, and let it erupt.

This unfortunately requires a lot of rewriting, editing, and going back through trying to find what character did what, or what character said what, but it works for me. This challenge has really opened up a door for me to be more successful in my endeavors, and more efficient with my time. That's what its here for. Even if you can't seem to find any words, you are at least trying, and to me that's just as much effort as those who seem to be floating along.

J. M. Kraynak
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"Newby Novelists"  A group for our newest aspiring novelists!
"Apostasy: The Book of Ithaca"  A tale of prophecy, betrayal, faith, and the battle between mortals and demons.
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