The following techniques are useful for starting a new project, creating a new scene, or working out a narrative problem. You may also use one or more of them to start your writing day, or to recharge in the midst of your day.

Free writing Give yourself ten to twenty minutes, pick up your pen or sit down at your computer and begin writing. Write whatever comes to mind and don’t lift your pen from paper or stop typing for the allotted time. If you can’t think what to write, write your last word over and over. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation or anything but putting words on paper. You can focus on a particular topic or project, or just write about anything that comes to mind.

Listing Simply make a list of everything you know or think about a project, a character, a scene or a topic.

Clustering Write the name of your project, character, subject or scene in the middle of a piece of paper. Draw a circle around it and then draw spokes radiating out from the circle and write related words on the spokes, and connect those to other related words.

Questioning Write down questions that you need to answer regarding the project. Don’t worry about answering them yet, but begin to think about strategies for answering them. Will you need to do research, interviews, imaginative work, plotting?

Meditation Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit, close your eyes, repeat a mantra or concentrate on your breathing and relax for 10 to 20 minutes before you begin to write. This will clear your mind, refresh and energize you for the work ahead.

Visualization Before writing a scene, close your eyes and picture it in your mind. Let the scene play out before you as if you were watching a movie. Then simply write down what you see in your imagination. This may require some practice but can be tremendously helpful for writing fiction or creative non- fiction.