Many writers get to work once they have a concept. Have idea, everything else follows.

Edward Albee disagrees:

I don’t have ideas. I have people. They meet. Things happen. They are changed. Find out why these people are in your head. Eventually they’ll say: ‘Write me’

The second edition of my calendar for Workman, The Writer’s Year: 365 Days of Inspiration, Prompts, and Quotes is now on sale! Think of it when shopping for that friend or relative who has always talked about being a writer but needs a push. Or take a look when stalled on your own project (shopping for writing calendars is a superb procrastination technique).

Each day of The Writer’s Year comes with a bit of inspiration from a great author, like this from Leslie Jamison:

With each project, you eventually have to surrender the perfect version of the work to make room for what you actually create.

There are also exercises to get the words flowing:

Start a flash fiction story (300–1,000 words) with this line: “Down the slope and across the valley they rode.”

And also stories about how writers overcame an obstacle or lack of confidence:

Comedian, essayist, and all-around exemplar of drollery Stephen Fry was once three chapters into a new novel, Revenge, when he found himself in a “pickle.” He realized too late that the story he was so pleased with was quite similar to The Count of Monte Cristo. Fry calmed down once he discovered that Alexandre Dumas’s storyline was reworked from a popular contemporary urban legend. Happy that “Dumas pinched the story, too,” Fry went ahead and finished his book, changing his character names to anagrams of Dumas’.

Buy it now from Workman, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your local indie.