Let’s start the new year talking about writing.

I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had that start with this: “I’ve got a great idea for a book…”

And then we head into ten minutes of  ‘and then K jumps into a lake, but then S has a breakdown, and J thinks he’s got fleas, and then the planet is overrun by rabid titmice, and the president decides to give it all up and go fishing…’ and I have no idea what the book is about, and the person with the great idea has even confused themselves.

A piece of editorial advice before you sit down to write: know what you’re writing.

Not in depth, perhaps. Writers work differently, and some like a good solid outline while others prefer a more meandering, let’s-see-what-happens path. Both work, if you have some sense of what you’re writing about.

For instance…