Molly Compton Herwood

• Turn on the computer.
• Sit in front of it.
• Type.

Some people have great success with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. As a general rule, I don't have time for morning pages, but when I'm upset about something, handwriting those three pages purges the stuff blocking my writing.

Three-day writing retreats also help. I go on two a year.

I also belong to my local chapter of Romance Writers of America. I believe every writer should find a writing community.

Critique groups and/or partners and/or brainstorming buddies can be helpful.

I've recently started using Scrivener as my primary writing tool. This program does everything I used to do manually--but it's all in one place. And it's easy to learn the basics, but I don't know if I'll ever learn or use all the nuances. It's powerful, and it's designed specifically for non-linear writing. It helps me keep track of word count by scene and by session. There's a place on the screen for notes when inspiration strikes in the middle of a sentence. I can color-code everything (I'm a visual learner, and color coding makes me happy.) When I first heard of the program, it was only for Mac, but now it's available for PC. I don't know if I'll ever go back to plain word processing.