There is a general misconception that good writers just start writing and brilliance pours out of them like water from a faucet. They wake up each morning, have a cup of coffee, roll up their sleeves and go to work on their magnum opus. Several months later they have a book out (which of course is an instant best seller) and we (the dumbfounded struggling writers) think, “How the hell did they do it? This story is so simplistic! Why didn’t I think of that?” The truth, however, is that the published writers’ crappy first draft often gets overlooked. Somehow, we think that only brilliance and magnificence pours of the pens of the writers we love. Yet, just like us they produce some very awful work. Just like us they create strange names for their characters and then rename them half way through; and just like us they doubt their intellect on days when nothing comes to mind.

I think it is important to demystify the process of writing and realize that every great book started with a  “shitty first draft”. In the words of Anne Lamott, “the first draft is a child’s draft […] you just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page” (Lamott). Don’t pressure yourself in creating the greatest book of the decade. That will come later. For now concentrate on creating a shitty first draft. All you need to do is start writing.

There are some great resources for you to generate ideas and overcome writer’s block:

 http://scriptfrenzy.org/  (has a fantastic random plot generator… silly, funny, unicorn mafia kind of fun).

– http://www.seventhsanctum.com/ (if you are into sci-fi, anime, super hero stuff, check this out. It generates everything, from weapons to settings. But be careful don’t abuse your powers. Your stories should still come from your own brain).

– http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/toys/randomsentence/write-sentence.htm (hey, here’s some fun for the academic in all of us. This is a generator for a random, completely incomprehensible and smart sounding academic sentence. However, please don’t use this to write your papers. If you can’t understand what it says, neither will your prof).

Our randomness enhanced by the generators:

– Script Frenzy = “After the Third World War, an angry squirrel finds a toaster that changes the world.” (We at BSB love both squirrels and toast. In fact, we love them so much that we drew a picture)

– Seventh Sanctum = “This is a political  story with a focus on destiny and the human need for love. The story is about a stockbroker who was once married to a beastmaster. It starts on our world in a new magical age in a solar system of magical space travel. The story climaxes with growth.” (Beastmaster and a stockbroker?! Yes, please! Add some magical space travel and some growth and we have a winner!)

– Random Sentence = “The poetics of post-capitalist hegemony asks to be read as the historicization of the public sphere.” (…and I’ve just gone cross-eyed)