It all begins with an idea.

Sometimes it’s a dream. Sometimes it’s a picture.

Sometimes it’s a smell or a word or a phrase or a face.

Here are the very beginnings of a few of my favorite projects—prologues, first chapters, early drafts, scribbles on napkins, inspiring photos, delirious musings, amazing definitions, and midnight strokes of brilliance. Take them as you will—windows into my mind, sad snippets of unedited prose, proof of lunacy, or even inspiration for a project of your own.