A terrific book on writing

Are you a fan of cartoonist Lynda Barry’s book What It Is? There’s something transformative about putting pen/pencil/brush/crayon to paper that takes you away from your inner critic and gets ideas flowing. Doodling on its own is a lot of fun, but it’s also a great tool for writing.

This month is Tara Lazar’s Picture Book Idea Month, which calls for a new story idea each day for 30 days. The first two days, easy peasy. From then on, not so easy! I open my notebook each day certain that I’ve tapped out my ideas (as of this writing, it’s only been six days), but then I remember to just start by doodling. That’s it. Nothing else required. I prefer spirals. I prefer doodling spirals with my Sharpie pens in my unlined Moleskine notebook. It doesn’t take long before an idea wiggles its way to the surface, and I start writing.

I have several writing books on my shelf that I reach for time and time again. This is one of them.