Seven ideas for keeping track of ideas

If you’re a writer, you’re a writer all the time. In my life, that means that ideas hit me at inopportune times. Times when I don’t mean to be thinking about writing, but, what do you know? I am. I’ve lost a lot of ideas because I got too wrapped up in what I had already been doing and failed to write the ideas down, there and then. I wish I could remember what I regretted, but I know I regret them.

If you want to keep track of ideas, you have to keep a pen handy and be ready to use it. Here are some ideas:

1) Write at night. With a little moonlight, you don’t even need to turn the light on to get enough of your idea down to get to sleep. Write it. It will help you relax, and you want to hold onto the idea. I like to write my ideas that I get at night on the inside covers of books I’m reading. A lot of times, I can’t even see the letters, but I use my non-writing finger to keep track of where the previous line was and go slowly. I can always read it well enough in the light.

2) Write while reading. I get a lot of ideas while reading other people’s books. Maybe they are derivative? Maybe they aren’t? Just write them down there and then, keep reading, assess later. The margins are fine. Even better if you go back and look over your notes and then journal about your reading after you finish a chapter.

3) Write with your cell phone. Most everyone has cell phones now and a lot of them have voice notes functions. I once had a job that had me driving around all day. I was always in a hurry to get to meetings. Could I stop? I learned to make voice notes on my cell phones and I didn’t lose anything. Voice notes are set up on one of my cell’s quick buttons now. You never know what All Things Considered might get you thinking about.

4) Stop. You need to stop. If you really want to make it happen, you have to be willing to stop what you’re doing when ideas hit. I’ve had a short story I wrote years ago on my mind. As I rode into work yesterday, a whole new way to approach it just took shape in my mind. I felt like I needed to get into work, but I didn’t. I took a minute at a coffee bar and I got the concept down. I’m glad I did. I needed to capture the structure and the tone as I could see it then.

5) Write in the shower. You can’t write in the shower, can you? Man, why do we get so many ideas in the shower? Do you have a partner? Will he or she do it if you yell through the door? I don’t, so I just repeat the idea to myself over and over again and hope I hold onto it before the next shiny object distracts me.

6) Write what comes back to you. If you find yourself dwelling on an idea, that’s an idea you need to work with. If an idea comes and you write it down and it doesn’t cross your mind again, maybe you should and maybe you shouldn’t. The ones that keep coming up, though, you need to use.

7) Write with what you have on you. “Writer” is not an occupation. It’s an identity. You are a writer or you are not. Samurais were the same way, and for a samurai it was shameful to be seen in public without his sword. You should not be seen in public without the accouterments of your trade either. A pen in your pocket, your notebook in bag or maybe some notecards in your jacket.

You have to be ready. Ideas won’t wait.