I hit a wall this weekend. I knew where I wanted to go with my writing goals but the brain? She had no desire to play along.

You know what I do when that happens? I take a road trip, and shove that brain in the back seat with its hands tied behind its back.

Didn’t feel like picking up where we left off? Fine, you obnoxious brain. We’re going to skip ahead and write that scene that’s been running through my head.

Don’t know how we’re going to get from point A to point B? No prob! Let’s take a detour to point J, K and L and write that climactic scene we know is going to turn the plot on its ear in the second act.

Don’t worry about how you’re getting into or out of those odd scenes. Just write ’em. Stick them in a folder titled “[Storyname] Overflow” and just keep writing. Every word you get on the page is one more word in your word count and one more opportunity for your story to be going somewhere. Take it. Drive that brain off in every direction you feel like going.

So take the brain. And a cannolli, if you feel like it.