1. In the middle of the night:
a) get up, go to desk, and write/type the whole thing down, dialogue and all?
b) turn on the light, and make detailed notes in a moleskine*-by-the-bed?
c) fumble around in the dark for a pencil/pen/lippy and something to write on?
d) spend the next hour constructing complex associations until convinced that nothing will be forgotten, and then it all is.
*insert favourite brand of notebook here.
2. During the day:
a) keep a notepad and pen handy at all times.
b) have a dictaphone/mobile-with-voice-record.
c) carry a BlackBerry®/palm top into which everything can be typed on the spot (and wifi-ed to the computer at home)
d) Do nothing, it'll all be remembered/forgotten anyway.
Later:
a) Every detail is remembered/recorded.
b) Every detail is forgotten, other than it was a Really Fab Idea.
I'm a middle-of-the-night girl, with a notebook by the bed. What are you?
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13 comments:
I've had so many ideas that I've filed away in my brain and then lost the key.
I wish I knew a good system too. I do shout into my mobile phone voice recorder bit sometimes or try to write in a bedside notebook. A sort of walkie talkie that was connected up to a pc via a voice recognition programme would be good.
I know, I know. I need to go away and take a pill!
I'm a terrible one for scribbling notes to myself - day and night. The tragic thing is that they rarely make any sense when I try to do anything with them! The title of 'Shredding The Label' came to me late at night though, and I'm glad I wrote that down because it turned out to be the perfect title!
Moleskine is my favourite notebook :o) I rarely have ideas in the night, but sometimes on waking I'll suddenly think of a vital plot-point I've overlooked. I somehow manage to remember it. Usually.
In the day, I'll scribble ideas on anything that comes to hand. Sometimes ON my hand. Failing that I repeat a key word over and over so I don't forget. Gets me some funny looks though!
My subconscious has cured me of this problem by ceasing to give me any thoughts or ideas at all any more.
So that's good then.
Good post, Helen! If in the middle of the night, I'm an associations girl. I picture myself switching on the kettle in the morning, and as I switch it on, the idea pings back into my head. Sometimes it works.
If the idea comes in the daytime, I'll try to get to a notebook to write it down. Have been VVVVV bad at this lately, hence no ideas for new stories.
Oh, oops. Am on Leigh's blog, and called her Helen.
Blame the bottle of wine I've just consumed. [blushing smilie]
1 - b)
2 - a)
3 - a)
Notebooks by day and notebooks by night. I'm a martyr to the notebook. The fact that they're filled with indecipherable cack doesn't matter. I just like writng in them:-)
Notebook of choice at the moment is unashamedly girly Cath kidston one. I'm hoping it will bring out my inner flower. 'Mole-e-skeene' is also on bedside table:-)
Fiona - Just think. Speak into a little tiny microphone on your collar, and when you get back to the computer it's all there! You're a genius!
Helen - Oh, I know that feeling. Notes that don't make any sense, and that's assuming you can read them in the first place.
Karen - I have notes on my hand too. And I can picture you talking to yourself, and the funny looks! That would make a great comedy skit!
Jen - Well, you have time to prepare yourself for when all those ideas come flooding back!!
Womagwriter - Fixing on something definite, like the kettle, is a good idea (my connections tend to be rather variable), so I'll try that! And I don't mind you calling me Helen, as long as you remember that she's a wino and mine's a pint!
Lane - Now why doesn't that surprise me? !! I'm glad you can write in your notebooks. I recently refrained from buying one (a beautiful leather-bound job with cream-coloured pages) on the grounds that 'I'd only write in it'. [sigh]
Notebooks by the bed (light on at various times during the night driving R completely insane) and post-it notes or note pad (various ones) in the day.
Then I have the problem of a)finding which of the many notebooks I wrote in when half asleep and b) what the hell my handwriting actually says.
A notepad and a eyeliner pencil, for mid-night jottings. Usually, the jotting says 'congestion charge!' as George always asks me if I've remembered to pay it just as we're going to sleep.
Too many plotlines and snippets have fallen by the wayside because I didn't write them down. Think my husband is just about used to it now...
I've got a notepad by my bed, but if I'm really tired I don't always write in it. Then I regret it when the idea has gone in the morning!
Debs - Ah, turning the light on. It's such a difficult decision, isn't it. Shall I? Shan't I? Will I remember if I don't write it down? No! Light on!
Maddie - Eyeliner pencil? I can see the gothic scrawlings now!
Tam - Hello, and welcome to my blog! I've seen yours too, and like it very much. Yes, it is surely worth a bit of marital disharmony to save those plots!
Sally - But why is it that we can never remember them in the morning, when they seem so clear at the time? If only there was an answer to that one.
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