Birthdays: Randall Jarrell (1914), Ted Lewin (1935), Barbara McClintock (1955), Gaston Leroux (1868), Harry Martinson (1904), Jeffrey Deaver (1950), Orson Welles(1915)

Tip: Don’t forget to get up and move every thirty minutes or so. It refreshes your brain and gets the blood flowing in your body.

Thought for the day: “Outlining is the most efficient way to structure a novel to achieve the greatest emotional impact. The most breathtaking prose and brilliantly drawn characters are wasted if the plot meanders and digresses. Outlining lets you create a framework that compels your audience to keep reading from the first page to the last…Best of all, once the outline is finished, you can write the book very quickly and in any order.” – Jeffrey Deaver

Jumpstart: You’re at a large, unfamiliar hotel and get off the elevator on the wrong floor. Just as the doors close behind you, you see something you shouldn’t. What do you see? What happens next?