Getting your ideas down

    • 15 posts
    June 11, 2015 4:09 PM EDT
    I figured this would be a good topic to discuss. Not sure about all of you, but I have a bunch of ideas for books. I get them at any time of the day too.

    So I have them written on:

    an old envelope
    a small notebook (paper) I have at my pc
    a big notebook(paper) I have at my chair in the living room
    a pad of paper I keep around
    anything I can find to write on at the time

    If I get more than just a short sentence or two, then I take the big notebook and start writing it down as I want to get the story on paper as fast as I can before I end up forgetting it. I prefer to start a story on paper. It just feels more personal to me.

    So, where do you write your ideas? Do you have them scattered around the house? in a drawer? on the desk? thumbtacked to the wall?

    #writing
    #author
    • 1 posts
    June 13, 2015 4:38 PM EDT
    At any given time, even in the bathtub, I have my phone within arms reach. I've taken to jotting down ideas in my phone's "Notepad" section so that I don't forget, and transcribing them to a notepad txt doc once I get to the computer. I've got a folder on my Onedrive filled with random notepad docs for ideas I've had but just haven't started delving further into yet.
    • 15 posts
    June 13, 2015 6:11 PM EDT
    I just got a onedrive set up and have wordpad on my ipad now as I tired of formatting issues with the iPad Pages thing. Going to see if this is easier to go between winblows and iPad.
    • 1 posts
    June 13, 2015 6:54 PM EDT
    Haha Apple tends to be a big pain in the butt to get things set up, but once you find things they approve of they're pretty good. I can't use the Ipad for writing though. I type too fast and it starts lagging with putting the text on the screen because I'm touching the touchscreen faster than it can keep up. Whoops! But the Onedrive should be nice, it has Word built right into it too, so you can edit Word docs and txt docs right in Onedrive so you don't have to worry about constantly transferring them.
    • 15 posts
    June 14, 2015 5:30 AM EDT
    I use the iPad with an external keyboard as I can't use the touchpad for writing either. So I basically have a mini laptop LOL.
  • June 26, 2015 12:49 AM EDT
    I have a notebook on my bookshelf where I keep ideas for stories. Sometimes I'll keep things saved in a document on my flash drive and come back to it when the muse strikes. Every now and then I'll even send a text to myself and remember to write it down on paper.
    • 15 posts
    June 26, 2015 5:45 AM EDT
    I never would have thought to text myself. Cool idea.Welcome back!
    • 1 posts
    June 26, 2015 4:07 PM EDT
    Ahahahaha you too? If it's a long post and I don't want to fight with the limited text allowance in the notepad, I send like 7 page texts to myself to get all the ideas out. My phone probably wonders why I'm talking to myself
  • June 26, 2015 7:48 PM EDT
    Thank you, Donna And yes, Mandi, I do that lol. Sometimes my ideas come during the most inopportune times, like once when I was grocery shopping, so I make sure to have my phone handy and I quickly send it in a text to myself. And then when I get home, I jot it down in my notebook or put in a word document.
    • 41 posts
    February 17, 2023 10:46 AM EST

    For ideas, I will grab anything near me to jot it down and then later, transfer that information in an old fashioned notebook.  My notebook is like a time capsule of ideas.