I love brainstorming. It’s one of my favorite things to do when working with clients, since together we can reach ideas that neither of us would have accessed alone. So, I experience the power of brainstorming regularly and see the results in both fiction and nonfiction books. But I haven’t often had the benefit of brainstorming about my own projects. That changed last fall during a trip to my old stomping grounds.

For years, I’ve been thinking about writing a novel loosely based on the years I spent in the High Sierra after college. When I moved to Manhattan just six months after leaving my tiny ski resort, my colleagues at the Ladies’ Home Journal reacted with shock to the whitewashed stories I told about my time there. What would they have thought about the unvarnished truth? Thankfully, I’ll never know. Unless I get my novel written, of course. But then they can assume it’s fiction.

I know I need to interview my friends who experienced—or remember—more of the wildness than I. Swapping stories is a sport among that crew, but we’ve usually got a few bottles of red or some good whiskey going, and somehow the recorder never makes it to the party.

So, during my trip last September, I decided to test the power of brainstorming and tap two of my best friends—one who was visiting the area for the first time, having already met a number of my crew from those days, and the other whom I’ve hung out with in the mountains for years. And, suddenly, I got clear about the theme of my novel and how to approach it.

That epiphany has already begun to shift. But I needed a starting point. And thanks to the power of brainstorming with my friends, I can finally move ahead whenever I’m ready.

Time to get started!