How do you remember ideas when you're not writing?

[RumpleTumbler]

I've got what I believe is a short piece churning in my brain. The last couple of weeks I've been jotting notes here and there as thoughts come to mind. This morning just after I woke up I'm thinking about the story and in 2 or 3 minutes had the entire opening word for word perfectly in my mind. It was weird. I planned to write this down as soon as I got up. I get up and stop by the bathroom to take my blood pressure/thyroid medication, grab a bottle of water and sit down at the computer. *Whoooooosh* 90% of it just evaporates. It sucked! I guess I could buy one of those hand held recorders but I can't really afford one. Anyone know of a good one that's fairly cheap? I don't have a nightstand so keeping a notebook by the bed isn't a solution.

Edit. I saw the 2 year old thread on DVR's. I'm quite sure that's out of date. Thanks again.

[Uncarved]

hire an escort.


Someone to follow you and write down or record everything you say and think. Then replay at night, shake her to erase her like an Etch a Sketch, and start again the next day.


Ok, seriously I can't contribute. I have this same problem if I don't write it down immediately. But I did want to say how nice it must be to have that moment of clarity when the thought materializes so complete like that.

[RumpleTumbler]

hire an escort

The thought of an escort that would be less expensive than a DVR isn't the least bit appealing even after 18 months without sex. :)

[Uncarved]

:roll:


ok you got me there.
Carry on with the serious nature of your post;)

[Siddow]

Keep a notebook under the bed. Or under your pillow. When these moments come, you have to grab them and use them. You wouldn't have died if you waited 15 minutes to take your medication, would you?

Priorities, man.

[scarletpeaches]

A dictaphone, maybe? Or a notebook, which is cheaper. Carry it EVERYWHERE.

[Siddow]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4840474

Okay, I did your research for you (lazy bum) and here's one at Wal-Mart for less than $30. Not fancy, but they have some pretty snazzy ones at Office Max and Office Depot for $40. Google them.

[Puma]

I have some moments like that (frequently when I'm driving) but usually I'm lucky and a lot of it will come back, sometimes days later, when I'm staring at the same section on the computer screen. I'd suggest writing down what you remember of the revelation when you get to the computer and hope you'll be able to fill in the missing parts the next time you look at it. Puma

[Cath]

I let ideas ferment in my brain for a while rather than write them down. If they disappear, there probably wasn't much substance to them in the first place. If they don't, they've developed into something worth writing when I can get to the bum in chair bit.

Which doesn't help you much. Sorry!

If you must write them, I'd go with the notepad method.

[maestrowork]

I have good memory. And I figure, if I can't remember something, then it's not that important to begin with. I do jot down the titles and taglines of all the stories I think about writing... I have a list of about 20 now. I don't, however, think about "HOW" I would write them, word for word. I think about plot, characters, etc. when I'm walking and, most often, on a long drive. But I don't do notes. I am one of those weird people, I suppose. Everything is in my brain. There were times when I woke up with a fantastic dream and I rushed to jot down it down.... only later to read it again and it wasn't really that great to begin with... so I've learned -- fleeting dreams and "inspiration" can be very misleading. I'd rather depend on a well thought-out idea...

[ChaosTitan]

My problem is that fully formed ideas often come while I'm in the shower.

No idea why.

I have to keep playing and replaying it over in my mind until I finish, get into my robe, and can get to a notebook.

I also never go anywhere without at least a scrap of paper and pen within easy reach. Too many times, I've been caught with ideas and nothing to write them down on. It sucks knowing I had the scene perfect the first time, but can't remember half of it when it comes time to write.

[Dancre]

I've got what I believe is a short piece churning in my brain. The last couple of weeks I've been jotting notes here and there as thoughts come to mind. This morning just after I woke up I'm thinking about the story and in 2 or 3 minutes had the entire opening word for word perfectly in my mind. It was weird. I planned to write this down as soon as I got up. I get up and stop by the bathroom to take my blood pressure/thyroid medication, grab a bottle of water and sit down at the computer. *Whoooooosh* 90% of it just evaporates. It sucked! I guess I could buy one of those hand held recorders but I can't really afford one. Anyone know of a good one that's fairly cheap? I don't have a nightstand so keeping a notebook by the bed isn't a solution.

Edit. I saw the 2 year old thread on DVR's. I'm quite sure that's out of date. Thanks again.

What I do is I recite the whole thing out loud and focus on it. When an idea like that hits me, I write it down immediately. I've also learned if I don't right away, poof, it's gone! I think this happens b/c your mind is relaxed and is able to run and play. But when you sit down to work, it tightens up and poof, it's gone. I suggest you let your mind relax for a while, think about the notes you wrote and maybe it will come back? That's helps me.

kim

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

Semirandom thoughts:

1. Practice. After you put a few years into this "being a writer" thing, you won't "lose" stuff so easily.

2. Barring brain damage or mental disorder, it's fairly impossible to "lose" an idea in the first place. Your fear of losing an idea will make the little bastid hide from you, so chill out already.

3. When somgwriters stumble over a great musical passage, incorporating rhythms &/or tones, some of them will "memorialise" it with some nonsense phrase. Because it's goofy, it sticks in the mind, & brings along with it the snippet of melody.

4. If you're not already carrying a pocketsize notebook & pen everywhere, then you're only here to (sorry to be blunt) whine. There are no magickal fixes -- either do the work, or don't.

[Sassee]

I planned to write this down as soon as I got up. I get up and stop by the bathroom to take my blood pressure/thyroid medication, grab a bottle of water and sit down at the computer. *Whoooooosh* 90% of it just evaporates.

Mistake # 1 - you did something else before writing it down. Reverse those actions and you won't lose your idea :)

[Jamesaritchie]

Every idea seems wonderful at three in the morning. I don't try to remember ideas. If I have to try, it was a bad idea. The ideas worth writing abut are the ones you can't forget, even if you try to forget them.

[Lady Cat]

I agree totally with both Chaostitan and Sassee - if you can't write the idea down immediately (like when you're in the shower or you're driving) then keep repeating it in your mind until you can write it down.

I keep a notebook, pen and booklite on my nightstand in case I wake up after having a great dream or idea. If you don't write it down within 3 minutes of waking up you'll loose it.

I have a mind like a steel sieve. I've lost many a fine line for a poem by not writing it down right away.

[Soccer Mom]

The place that I used to lose ideas was while driving. I have a long commute and often got ideas on the way to work. If something really strikes my fancy, I call myself from my cell and leave a voicemail message. Often times, like JAR said, later I review the message and think "Doh!" because it wasn't so great after all. But it only takes a second to leave myself a vm.

[Jamesaritchie]

I agree totally with both Chaostitan and Sassee - if you can't write the idea down immediately (like when you're in the shower or you're driving) then keep repeating it in your mind until you can write it down.

I keep a notebook, pen and booklite on my nightstand in case I wake up after having a great dream or idea. If you don't write it down within 3 minutes of waking up you'll loose it.

I have a mind like a steel sieve. I've lost many a fine line for a poem by not writing it down right away.

I think the trouble with losing lines and ideas is that you'll be forever convinced they were great, no matter how rotten they might be in reality.

My biggest problem with writing things down is that I then convince myself to use them, which is almost always a horrible idea.

A mind like a steel sieve is, I think, very often a writer's best friend.

[RumpleTumbler]

I was convinced it was a good opening. :) Thanks for trashing it James. ;)

[Jamesaritchie]

I was convinced it was a good opening. :) Thanks for trashing it James. ;)

Sorry, but forgotten ideas/lines always remind me of the writer who had a flash of brilliance at three in the morning, the best, most insightful thing anyone ever conceived. He jotted it down, fell back to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, he remembered having a brilliant idea, but not what it was, so he grabbed the slip of paper and eagerly read it. It read, "This room smells funny."

[Linda Adams]

I actually stopped writing them down. I used to keep a notebook and wrote them down in it. But what I found was when I wanted to write something, it was always an idea that stuck with me and didn't need to be written down. I would periodically go to the notebook and flip through it, but I actually never used anything in it. So I agree with James here. If the idea gets forgotten, then it really probably was forgettable in the first place.

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

he grabbed the slip of paper and eagerly read it.
I'm guessing that you're misremembering at fourth-or-so hand here.

The incredible William James (a much better read than his brother!) was experimenting with various drugs & stimulants, being by turns a chemist, a philosophy professor, & a theologian -- some compare him to Tim Leary but with more dignity & better PR (& no Liddy).

James was into 60% nitrous oxide, & snapped out of it with a blinding revelatory insight, which he scribbled down.

Because the guy was totally honest about his research, he wrote a great essay about his experiments, so the records are quite good. Here's some of the stuff he wrote down while tripping:

What's mistake but a kind of take?
What's nausea but a kind of -usea?
Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.
Everything can become the subject of criticism --
How criticise without something to criticise?
Agreement -- disagreement!!
Emotion -- motion!!!!
By God, how that hurts! By God, how it doesn't hurt!
Reconciliation of two extremes.
By George, nothing but othing!
That sounds like nonsense, but it is pure onsense!
Thought deeper than speech...!
Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL!
Oh my God, oh God; oh God!
There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.But the single coolest comment (popularised by R.A. Wilson):

Overall there is a smell of fried onions.


Words to live by, truly. Especially for writers convinced that wisdom drips from their ears.

[aka eraser]

I bought a DVA just last week because I got tired of forgetting things when I didn't have access to a pen, paper or computer - esp. when fishing.

Now I just have to figure out how it works....

[Turtle07]

I dunno if this might work 4 u, but it did for me! I force myself to dream my plot at night! No joke! I seriously do that. When I go to bed, I think of plot over and over again tillI find myself drifting off to sleep playing out my plot in my head. It's always fresh in my mind and I keep thinking about it in the corners of my mind until I have free time to type it out! I hate notepads cuz I have sloppy handwriting. I would prbably be rushing if I wrote it down, and then later I can't read it and all hope for that idea will be lost.

Mistake # 1 - you did something else before writing it down. Reverse those actions and you won't lose your idea

Sassee was right, that was a mistake. Once the idea hits u, u should go write it down right away! Forget that u may be in just ur boxers and wife beater and ur neighbors may see u, just write it!!

[DamaNegra]

I have good memory. And I figure, if I can't remember something, then it's not that important to begin with.

You've no idea how many seriously important things I've forgotten throughtout my life. That statement isn't valid with everyone. Once, I threw 100 pesos to the garbage bin because I'd forgotten they were in my pocket with some stray papers, and didn't remember until two days later when mom asked me what had happened to the money. Same thing happens with story ideas, and I fear I can't contribute here either, 'cause all I've done is getting used to losing them. Sorry.

[veinglory]

I also think it is a kind of natural selection. All new ideas seem great, the ones that really are tend to stick around long enough to get written down.

[akiwiguy]

Most ideas, to do with say plot or characterisation, I'd tend to remember if they were worth remembering. In fact I'd probably have the problem of trying to function during the day with the idea developing in my head.

But what I often do experience and it just kills me, is having a specific phrase or sentence that seems perfect, either for current work or maybe as an opening line for something in the future, and I do find they can vanish really quickly, especially if I'm distracted.

Just as I was typing this I thought... hang about, I'm sure there's a straight-forward hot key on my cell phone that activates the voice memo feature. Hmmmm, time to check that out I think.

[Julie Worth]

This morning just after I woke up I'm thinking about the story and in 2 or 3 minutes had the entire opening word for word perfectly in my mind. It was weird. I planned to write this down as soon as I got up. I get up and stop by the bathroom to take my blood pressure/thyroid medication, grab a bottle of water and sit down at the computer. *Whoooooosh* 90% of it just evaporates.

This has happened to me, except once I did remember the words and wrote them down. They were awful! So now I don't worry if I forget. Better to forget, in fact, because that's just your subconscious doing rough drafts.

[Jamesaritchie]

I'm guessing that you're misremembering at fourth-or-so hand here.

The incredible William James (a much better read than his brother!) was experimenting with various drugs & stimulants, being by turns a chemist, a philosophy professor, & a theologian -- some compare him to Tim Leary but with more dignity & better PR (& no Liddy).

James was into 60% nitrous oxide, & snapped out of it with a blinding revelatory insight, which he scribbled down.

Because the guy was totally honest about his research, he wrote a great essay about his experiments, so the records are quite good. Here's some of the stuff he wrote down while tripping:
What's mistake but a kind of take?
What's nausea but a kind of -usea?
Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.
Everything can become the subject of criticism --
How criticise without something to criticise?
Agreement -- disagreement!!
Emotion -- motion!!!!
By God, how that hurts! By God, how it doesn't hurt!
Reconciliation of two extremes.
By George, nothing but othing!
That sounds like nonsense, but it is pure onsense!
Thought deeper than speech...!
Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL!
Oh my God, oh God; oh God!
There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.But the single coolest comment (popularised by R.A. Wilson):

Overall there is a smell of fried onions.


Words to live by, truly. Especially for writers convinced that wisdom drips from their ears.


May be. But the account I read was in Writer's Digest several years ago. I don't know where it originated, but the writer was a fiction writer, and claimed it happened just this way. And we all know how reliable Writer's Digest articles are. (Heh!)

I've encountered a number of writers over the years who have had somewhat similar experiences. (I seem to hear an inordinate number from Hollywood screenwriters?) Back when I first started writing, I also kept a notebook, several, in fact, filled with every idea and line I came up with that seemed worthwhile.

I certainly wrote down some stinkers, and some, at three in the morning, that proved embarrassingly stupid the next day.

Two things got me away from writing down ideas. One was another writer I respected greatly who said his writing had improved greatly since stopping, and the other was reading through my notebooks and realizing that 99% of what I'd written down was just wrong for me. If I spent my time trying to write fiction based on the ideas in those notebooks, I had no doubt I'd never sell anything.

Most of the ideas and lines weren't bad, there simply were not things best suited for my writing style and personality. I don't really believe there is such a thing as a bad idea, but there are ideas that are wrong for an individual writer.

In the end, however, it comes down to the fact that I'd much rather work on something I can't forget, rather than on something I can't remember.

[RumpleTumbler]

In times of trouble when I don't know what to do. I simply utter the phrase "What would James A. Ritchie do?"

Problem solved. I'm going to forget about it for awhile anyway.

Donning my WWJARD bracelet. Sorry James, I'm still amused with the flounce.

[C.bronco]

Sorry, but forgotten ideas/lines always remind me of the writer who had a flash of brilliance at three in the morning, the best, most insightful thing anyone ever conceived. He jotted it down, fell back to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, he remembered having a brilliant idea, but not what it was, so he grabbed the slip of paper and eagerly read it. It read, "This room smells funny."
I had a very similar experience, and awoke believing I had the makings of a fabulous epic adventure. After a shower and some diet pepsi, I read what I had in my journal; it was something akin to "a turtle makes a journey."

P.S. That could be a good T-shirt. I once wrote a poem called 'WWMGD (What Would MacGyver Do?)"

I've worked out chapters and come up with a lot of stuff during my morning commute. Usually plot or a snippet of dialogue.

My Mom uses a dictaphone sometimes for her poetry.

[Jamesaritchie]

In times of trouble when I don't know what to do. I simply utter the phrase "What would James A. Ritchie do?"

Problem solved. I'm going to forget about it for awhile anyway.

Donning my WWJARD bracelet. Sorry James, I'm still amused with the flounce.

I wish I had a bracelet like that. Trouble is, I don't even know what James A. Ritchie would do most of the time. I'm reaching that age where I don't remember what I did yesterday, I'm only half sure what I did this morning, and I have no clue what I'll do tomorrow.

And how in God's name does anyone manage to type on a notebook keyboard without screwing up every word? Swear I had to retype every word here.

[jenfreedom]

I think of new ideas constantly. I do a lot of business copy - for which ideas are presented to me but for articles I'd like to write I have steps. Why, because I'm totally anal when it comes to organization. I like to talk out ideas before I write them down so I probably bore everyone I know to death with them. I tend to start conversations with, "Guess what I thought of today...blah, blah, wouldn't that be perfect for so and so publication". I spend a lot of time looking at the glazed over eyes of my poor friends. I've got to stop that or sooner or later I won't have any eyes of friends to glaze over.

Then I write each article idea into my database software. I have categories:
>Idea title
>Genre
>Length (like if I think it'll be a feature, FOB, or mid-sized article)
>General outline
>Where the idea came from (If it came from me I use my name, if I unashamedly stole it and plan to mix it up and use it I like to list where from -- plus this helps me to keep track of what pubs are looking for)
>If the idea sold
>Where it sold
>How much it sold for

I keep track of the selling points to see what editors have liked in the past, or what they didn't.

I don't keep little slips of paper around because if I can't remember it enough before I talk about it out loud or log it in my database I assume it was lame to start with.

Sometimes I think I should quit writing and open a personal organization company.

Take care
~ Jennifer

[Parkinsonsd]

I'm reaching that age where I don't remember what I did yesterday, I'm only half sure what I did this morning, and I have no clue what I'll do tomorrow.


God, you're lucky. The really great thing about advanced stage Alzheimer's is you're always meeting new people.

[aka eraser]

Now you guys are getting closer to why I finally bought the frickin' voice recorder. Sure, I wouldn't mind capturing those rare moments of brilliance but mostly I want to remember to pick up some pickles and rye bread on the way home.

[janetbellinger]

I try to write everything down, otherwise I forget it.

[The Grift]

I DON'T remember my ideas, that's the problem!

I take a lot of long car drives (usually at least two 3.5 hour drives per week) so I have a lot of time to think. The problem is that driving is not conducive to writing.

I also do a lot of standing around waiting...train stops, waiting for the girlfriend while she shops, that sort of thing. I was thinking about getting one of those pocket organizers with the mini-mini-QWERTY keyboards to write stuff down on, because I dont like handwriting things. Anyone have any experience with those cheap little electronic organizers as notepads?

[Anya Smith]

I never forget story ideas or plot twists; it's the names and titles I have trouble with. I've learned to have a notebook in my car because good names pop into my head when I'm driving.

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

The toys are handy -- I lost my Sony minicassette during a recent move, & it bugs me.

But, really, the thing about the "really perfect ideas" is that they often tend to pop up right on cue when I'm sitting down & writing. Maybe that comes with time or experience or something, but I'm fair certain it's always been there.

Is it perfect? Nah... but neither's anything else. How'd you like to have all your stuff in a stack of notebooks that the dog (naturally!) decides to take a good long wee upon?

I've lost dozens of completed stories over the years... & found that when I sit down to make a few notes about one in hopes of reconstruction, what I end up with is certainly better than the original, which I'd likely have merely edited.

Them little great ideas will run away from you -- & all the more effectively when you get anxious about 'em -- but they will not truly disappear, & in fact might reemerge far stronger.