I hate oatmeal because-along with the fact that I was forced to eat it every day-as a kid it was always my job to be the stirrer. If you have no idea what I mean, be grateful. You see, to make good porridge you have to stir and stir while the water boils.

It was a job which didn't take much concentration, but if you blew it, the overflowing results were obvious. Half the time I did blow it-my body was in front of the stove, but my mind had me staving off pirates, or scoring five goals in the Stanley Cup hockey finals.

If only I knew then what I know now. I'd have told my mother not to keep getting upset, as daydreaming is actually "professional development" for writers.

After all, daydreaming is nothing less than the process of constructing stories-usually fun ones with you as the hero-in your head. It takes hard daydreaming to work out all the details so you save the day, or win the prize, at exactly the right moment. Practice enough daydream stories in your head, and it becomes a lot easier to put those details down in the right order.

More importantly, I think daydreaming unlocks a treasure box of new ideas.

Why? Next time you daydream, check out whether you begin with these two words: What if...

What if I won the lottery...what if I were the only one who knew a bomb was ready to explode during the school play...what if I became invisible...

Armed with those "what ifs," the next step to writing a story is easy. just ask yourself what might happen next. Then what might happen after that. And so on.

As you construct your chain of events, keep in mind another writing tip. Stories need a beginning (problem introduced), a middle (problem gets worse), and an end (problem solved). If your events have this structure, your chain of events will become a great story!

Anyway, I'd keep writing, but I want to get back to this deserted island I left five minutes ago. You see, there's a beautiful princess who needs rescuing from a gorilla, and as I'll just happen to stroll by as she is screaming for help....