I use free writing a lot when I’m feeling stuck. I like to do it on HUGE sheets of newsprint. I switch pen colors for each suject I take on. Sometimes I doodle… draw pictures of images from the book: rabbits, sheriff stars, etc. and this sparks more writing. I love having the big paper to work on. I also use the newsprint and colored inks to do storyboards instead of a traditional outline.

The classics:

It is a truth universally acknolwedged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.

And the less classic (from Rachel’s Holiday) that’s actually a cheat because it’s three lines:

They said I was a drug addict. I found that hard to come to terms with — I was a middle-class, convent-educated girl whose drug use was strictly recreational. And surely drug addicts were thinner?

I could hear the ocean. She was talking about a fair at the boardwalk, only $5 a ticket, kids free, what a deal. But in the background I heard the sound of the ocean, of waves crashing and rolling away, and for the first time in months, I wished I were there.

The invitation was always open, of course, provided I listened to her complain about our mother and sympathized with whatever recent transagression had occurred. Our mother never checked with her first, she kept M&Ms in her pocket, she called too late at night to talk to the kids. And just last week, she had bought my sister a dress two sizes too large – what was our mother thinking?

All I had to do was tsk or cluck, because we both knew I couldn’t answer that question. Our mother didn’t call me to talk with my kids (I had none), nor could I remember the last time she had bought me anything …