You can never underestimate the power of friends who also lead a writing life when it comes to working up ideas for novels, books, magazines, changes in career, or any other writing project.

An evening at a friend’s house last night with three writers was filled with ideas shared, problems solved, plot lines explored  – and a notebook full of interesting challenges and crises for our main characters.

So, within four hours, we brainstormed the body language of a jilted woman 20 years on; the relevance of Freud’s theory of personality when structuring a ‘finding yourself’ novel; the restrictions of fancying your leading (fictional) man; the pros and cons of self-publishing a literary magazine; and which current novels we had something to learn from.

In sharing our ideas, we gave shape to them and helped take them to their next stage. Most importantly, we received validation for what we thought was right all along: we gave ourselves permission to proceed.