I'm always amazed at the thought-provoking and, quite frankly, brilliant blogs out there, written by women and men who have mastered the art of squeezing an idea out of sluggish grey matter. Or perhaps their grey matter isn't sluggish at all; maybe they all have those brain exercises on Wii to thank for that.

Well, my Wii is a wee kitten, who has taken my muse and batted it around like a crumpled-up piece of notepaper (his favourite toy), which leaves me staring at blank pages now that I'm ready to start my second novel.

Trouble is, there's something stopping me. I've trolled the Internet and have read a heap of articles about starting a novel, finishing a novel, planning for a novel and basically anything else that contains the words "write, complete and novel."

But I know what it is: a simple case of myideasucksitis -- a condition that affects a lot of writers at many points along the journey.

It normally happens when brainstorming ideas for a novel or article...or theme song. Whether composing the prose at a computer or notebook, the writer will look at what has been created so far, shake his or her head and then mutter, "My idea sucks."

This step is normally followed by a large drink of some sort. Sometimes with a paper umbrella.

Unfortunately, the only way to alleviate myideasucksitis is to KEEP ON WRITING ANYWAY. It's painful, I know, but that's really all that we can do. Well, you can just stop writing and move on to other things like gardening or laundry, but it'll leave you with that nagging, lingering feeling that will keep you up at night or have you reaching into your pocket for a pen and piece of paper at the most inopportune moment, like during a police lineup.

But what if your idea really does suck?

Then you come up with another one. Maybe a few for good measure. How you gauge the suckiness of an idea is up to you, but please allow the ideas to ripen a bit before you rip them out and send them to the compost heap. Some ideas need a little room to grow while others start out really stinky until you prune out that one harmful element, like a setting or a secondary character who's too distracting for the story you have to tell.

From all that I've read, it seems that the best thing to do is to write something that you would read. It sounds simple, but it's definitely not easy. Shoot, I guess I have my work cut out for me. ;)

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