Birthdays: Karen Blixen (1885), Thornton Wilder (1897), Cynthia Ozick (1928), Catherine Ryan Hyde (1955), Nick Hornby (1957)

Tip: Don’t be a perfectionist with your first draft. Turn off your inner critic/editor and just write. Especially don’t listen to that little voice that says you aren’t any good. Stick your tongue out at it and keep writing.

Thought for the day: “I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story.” – Karen Blixen

Jumpstart: Finish this scene: We were so happy that day… (use: shepherd, silver baby cup, canoe, ginger)