It never fails. The best ideas for stories, articles, and blog posts come at a time when you are completely unable to make a note of them, much less follow through on them.
Maybe you’re driving down the highway at 60 miles an hour and something that you see along the road triggers a great idea for a story. Or, you’re in a concert hall, movie theater, or even in church, and you think of something to write about. Naturally, you don’t have a notepad on you to write your idea down.
Then, when it comes time to write, you can’t think of anything to write about. You know that you had a good idea yesterday but you can’t really remember it.
What do you do when you think of a great idea and you can’t jot it down? I used to get really frustrated whenever this happened until I discovered a way to hold onto those great ideas.
A friend of ours commented that he could memorize the essence of anything if he studied it three times. Since I’ve always been good at memorizing details for tests, I decided to use his technique to hold onto those stray ideas.
For the past few months, whenever a stray idea for a post or article pops into my head, I mentally study it the way that I used to memorize facts for a test. Basically, it works like this — I mentally repeat the idea to myself about five times. I include any details that I think will help me to remember the idea.
It works like a charm! In fact, I had the idea for this post a few weeks ago as I was driving. (As a mom, I find myself driving a lot.) I never wrote the idea down and I’ve had no trouble remembering it during the weeks between when I thought of it and now.
Best of all, I can use this technique while I’m doing something else. Â Of course, I do often jot ideas down on paper or in Notepad on my computer if it’s convenient to do so.
What about you? How do you hold onto your inspiration?
Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Robert Hruzek // Aug 23, 2007 at
Laura, bless you! I’ve been aggravated by this ever since I decided to start blogging! I can’t wait to try it. Now, all I have to do is, er, get and idea…
2 Laura // Aug 23, 2007 at
Robert,
You’re not pulling my leg, are you? I was starting to think the topic was really lame (no comments and all).
Seriously, if it helps you — that’s great! It certainly works for me.
3 Charity // Aug 23, 2007 at
This topic isn’t lame at all. This always happens to me. I will have to try your suggestion.
4 Matt Keegan // Aug 24, 2007 at
Ideas come to me constantly, offing through reading others blogs, visiting websites, or while doing research. If something strikes my fancy, I make a mental note about it.
My inspiration usually comes when I am exercising, which is during the course of a two-mile walk. I find myself covering the key points while walking and then I flesh out those points when I sit down to type.
There are times when I use Notepad/Wordpad to jot things down too.
5 Laura // Aug 24, 2007 at
Hi Charity and Matt!
Isn’t it odd how the best ideas come to us while we are doing something else?
6 Traveller // Aug 26, 2007 at
I guess this happens all the time. Especially so about what I want to post next! When I sit down trying to figure out what I want to write about, it takes a while. I have now begun writing down the moment an idea strikes me; I either make notes in my cellphone or on the back of a business card when I am travelling.
7 Laura // Aug 26, 2007 at
Hi Traveller!
It’s good when you can write things down right away. Since I have kids I find myself driving them around a lot. If an idea occurs to me as I am driving it’s not always possible to jot it down.
8 Vivienne Quek // Aug 28, 2007 at
I will try it and let you know if it works for me 🙂
9 Laura // Aug 28, 2007 at
Thanks Vivienne. I hope it helps you.