Draw your own self portrait, even if you don't think you can draw. Consider the details. What would you be doing, how would you be sitting, what things would be around you in the background and in the foreground?

How would you present yourself, the writer, the family person or some other aspects of who you are? Now go ahead and draw, it doesn't matter if it's a work of art, suitable for framing. It's just for you. Unless it becomes such a masterpiece that you simply must share it!

Now that you are into drawing mode...

Dr. Seuss often got his ideas by doodling. Draw a picture/ doodle and ask yourself why? Why did this happen? How did this happen? How can you explain it all in a story.

What do you usually doodle when on the phone, waiting on hold? Some people doodle shapes, some doodle faces and some create whole pictures. What would you say about your doodles to someone else. How would you describe it? Where did it start and where will it end?

If you enjoy doodling and drawing at all consider making sketches as you write. Especially if you are writing fiction. Draw the characters you are writing about, give them a face on paper, not just in words but in real lines, angles and shapes. Are they happy, scowling, reading a good book? What did you catch your characters doing?

If you write non-fiction drawing it out is good too. Draw what you are describing to someone else. Make it more visible to yourself. Delve just that bit deeper and figure it out from another angle. How does it all really work? When you journal draw or doodle your thoughts, things and people you saw that day.

Doodling can bring a whole new aspect and resource to your writing.

"I write very freely at first, just tons of stuff. At that stage, I try not to revise at all. If the editor in my head comes in too soon and says, ugh, this isn't good, then nothing ever gets past the early steps." Phoebe Gilman

"There are some days when I go to sit down at my drawing table and I just want to cry. Sometimes I do cry. But I've learned to keep working - even if I'm messing up and making mistakes." Trina Schart Hyman

"Nonsense wakes up the brain." Theodor Seuss Geisel