Writing Basics: Sleep on it

Here is a suggestion for the thinking/pre-writing step of writing. Before you go to sleep, think about what you want to write and write your thoughts down. All of them. Then go to sleep. While you are sleeping, your subconscious mind will think about what you wrote down. You may even dream about it. When you wake up the next morning, you will be able to write about you subject, because your mind has been thinking about it for eight hours, or however many hours of sleep you are able to get. You may even wake up suddenly in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea. Keep your list and a pencil by your bedside so you can write down the idea because you may not remember it in the morning. A brilliant idea is a terrible thing to waste!