Take Five: #11 of 30: Catching lightning


Take Five
Five-minute reads about writing
Nov. 3 - Nov. 30, 2010

Courtesy: Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Twitter: @RandomMagicTour

#11 of 30: Catching lightning   


Thoughts come and go so quickly, in the most unexpected places, that you really should try to get them down on paper as soon as they show up, otherwise you’ll lose them. 

You don’t need to go out and get a fancy moleskin journal and a thousand-dollar pen.
 
Get a simple ballpoint pen and a cheap, small notebook, and keep them in your jacket pocket, or purse, or backpack, or on your nightstand, so you’ll be able to write things down when thoughts come to you out of nowhere. 

If you carry a cell phone with you all the time and can jot down text in your phone, you can do it that way. 

This is especially true (having some way to jot things down right away) if you’ve started a new project, because you’ll have ideas popping into your head in the most unaccountable places -- washing the dishes, taking a shower, parking your car, etc.

Just get the thought down on paper, even if it’s just a fragment that doesn’t make sense to you at the time (blue, why did she say that, tire tracks, Tuesday, sleeping, three swans, etc.).

It won’t make total sense to you right then, but the odds are that it will make perfect sense to you later on. 

From author interview with Sasha Soren.
Interviewer: Well-Read Reviews (@wellreadreviews)


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