Ideas Series – How to Keep Them For Writing

Ideas are finicky things. They’re changing, they’re impulsive and almost always stumbling around in our minds. They’re very much like a toddler who can’t communicate what they want properly and have to result in baby mumble, cries and finger pointing and it’s out job to try and extract exactly what they’re trying to say to us. Ideas like to hide in plain sight, they’re sneaky, wanton and persistent. A lot of the time you can’t catch them, you let them pass, but this is how you lose great ideas that could have been. Ideas for writing are just as hard.

So to get the most out of an idea invest in a notebook and a pen. Got one? Great! Now get more. How many bags do you have? Ten? Great put one in each and get a 10 pack of pens while you’re there.

You might be going that’s just stupid, but I assure you, it’s not. I have an infinite amount of clutches, some of them hardly get touched and many of them are used frequently. A staple in all of them is a small book and a pen. No matter what. You think I’m joking, but my family started to roll their eyes at me when I used to have to run and grab a pen or grab a notebook to fit into my clutch. Sometimes I didn’t use it and other times I was sitting at the table with my purple pen poised and writing away about something in my head. Whether or not I used it or not didn’t matter it was like a safety blanket and probably the hardest habit I’ve tried to kick, but I only say that I kicked it because I got an iPhone and a tablet that allowed me to have Evernote and I’m able to share everything across to my computer.

If you’re someone who likes to use voice memos then do that. I’ve dabbled with that and felt stupid telling my phone was was happening in my head with a plot point. The whole point of writing it down or getting it out on paper is to remember the idea so you can use it.

What good is an idea if you can’t use it?

It’s not.

An idea that isn’t used is just a thought.

You can’t act on thoughts.

Think you can keep an idea? I have a challenge for you. Take a notebook with you and a pen, wherever you go for the next week. Write down every idea you have. Every. Single. One. Good and bad. Get it down. Come back and tell me if you have any good ideas that you can use now or later.