Birthdays: Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001), Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), Dan Brown (1964), Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970), Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925)

Tip: Plot is what your story is about. There has to be something there for it to work.

Thought for the day: “I don’t start writing until I have a very solid outline. Or else I’d get to the end and find out there is no ending, and that I just wasted three years of my life. The Da Vinci Code outline was a hundred pages.” – Dan Brown

Jumpstart: Your best friend has invented something that would change the world forever. What has s/he invented? Would it change the world for the better or the worse? What do you do?