What have you combined recently? Fused? Aligned? Or just squished together? You have combined something recently, haven’t you?

It’s the entire essence of fiction: to bring together that which was unconnected. Either severed or never combined. Disparate plots, heroes and villains, odd characters, dangers and distance, understanding and the truth. There was something that you combined: Perhaps the slices of a sandwich, the parts of a car, thoughts and ideas, actions and words. Think back to that, to what connected that, as far back as you can go, and you will find that fiction.

The challenge comes, then, to make that combination real.