Do you wake up in the morning with the plot for the world’s greatest novel formulating in your brain? Not every morning, but about once a week I do. Often when I’m in the middle of something else: driving, showering, putting away groceries, watching TV, talking on the phone, making dinner, plotting my greatest ever Canadian World Domination… I get the best ideas but have no paper handy to jot them down. I forget a lot of great ideas before I can write them down.
Sometimes I can rip something out of a magazine or the newspaper or the back of the box, etc. That way I can remember what I was thinking at the time. I keep a notebook in my purse, it takes up more than it’s share of space but gives me a chance to keep some of my ideas. Not so handy while driving but, like using a cell phone, I can usually find a place to pull over to use it.
A lot of ideas are stashed in folders inside a file cabinet under my desk. They aren’t well organized but they are there and I have some hope of tracking them down. It’s great to know I have some kind of backup.
I write non-fiction so articles along my topic area are great as sources of quotes, research and people to contact. I’d like to write mysteries, maybe horror but it wouldn’t be icky stuff. I thought about writing romances because they would be easy, they seem to be a formula more than a story. Put it on the list for someday. Everything I find to inspire me in those genres has a folder too.
For now I’m working with non-fiction and I do love it. For me its a combination of teaching the world and learning more myself. Each time I research one idea I find another dozen from there. Life is great.