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

RumpleTumbler · Apr 28, 2007

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 I saw the 2 year old thread on DVR's. I'm quite sure that's out of date.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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

tinasamuels said:
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 · Apr 28, 2007

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

Siddow · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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

Siddow · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

RumpleTumbler said:
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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

RumpleTumbler said:
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 · Apr 28, 2007

Ideas

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

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 · Apr 28, 2007

forgetting

Lady Cat said:
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 · Apr 28, 2007

I was convinced it was a good opening.

Thanks for trashing it James.

Jamesaritchie · Apr 29, 2007

Ideas

RumpleTumbler said:
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 · Apr 29, 2007

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 · Apr 29, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
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 · Apr 29, 2007

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 · Apr 29, 2007

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 · Apr 29, 2007

maestrowork said:
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.

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

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