How many times have you found yourself doing something rather mundane when a great idea for your blog pops into your head? Maybe driving down that long stretch of road, words suddenly start coming together and you know that it would just be an awesome entry for your blog when you get home. Or maybe you are in the middle of an important meeting. It could be that you are doing your weekly grocery shopping. This is not at all unusual – after all, we do get our ideas and inspiration from things that we actually experience. As such, different situations may evoke certain ideas for writing.
However, I cannot count how many times I have experienced these great moments of “brilliance†only to find out when I sat in front of my computer, that I could not remember exactly what I had in mind. More often than not, I had the general gist but I just couldn’t recapture the edge that would make that written material great.
I am sure many of you are thinking along the lines of “It’s simple, take notes! Jot it down!†I know – I have done that too. Yet what if you just didn’t have the chance to do that? Is there anyway to grab those stray ideas and hold on to them till it’s time to write?
Here’s a simple thing that might work for you as it does for me: when a really good idea comes to mind, don’t just dismiss it and say I’ll write it later. Think about it as you would a fact that you need to memorize for an exam. Repeat the idea to yourself say 3 or 5 times. More than that, start adding tiny details that would help you remember the overall gist of what you want to write. Don’t stop thinking about it until you have the chance to jot it down.
Any other ideas on how to hold on to those thoughts?
Originally posted on August 23, 2007 @ 11:31 pm
