Writing Saturday; What to do with Ideas

8:15 AM

You are in the middle of writing a book or article when all of a sudden you are struck with a great idea, but what should you do with that idea? Should you leave your current project and go on to the new one, or should you just hope that you will be able to remember it later? Neither! You should never leave a project half done (if you do, it will probably never get done), nor do you want to risk losing a good idea. The solution to this problem is having a writer’s notebook.

Not long after I began to write my first book, my mom gave me a large spiral notebook with dividers in it. The very first section I use for ideas, everything from book titles, to good lines for dialog, to verses I wanted to use. I also have some pages that I use to write down brief descriptions of plot ideas so that I won’t forget them. I also have a section for writing first drafts of articles, storing reference maps, and a section just to scribble notes on.

Having a writing notebook has been a great help to me. Just knowing that my ideas are written down so that I can use them later is a great comfort. It is also really fun to look back at some of my older ideas and work and seeing how far I have come in my writing ability.

What about you? Do you have some helpful hints on what to do with ideas?

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1 comments

  1. I like typing the beginning of a story on the computer, that way I can got back and see how I started out the story and what sort of "feel" it had too it.

    P.S. Thanks for commenting on my recent blog post, it was a blessing and I agree with you.

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