I always get ideas in the most inconvenient places. I know a lot of writers and other creative types suffer from the same problem–the ideas flow best when you’re not really trying, when you’re occupied with something else, and most likely when it is difficult to record your idea to remember for later.
The lightbulb always turns on for me when I’m driving, when I’m in the shower, or right before I’m about to fall asleep. All these situations make perfect sense, because those are probably the only time I’m actually letting my thought processes rest. But how am I possibly going to capture those ideas before they get away? I’ve lost too many great snippets of poetry or song lyrics, pieces of dialog, or plot ideas because I had no way to safely and quickly record them. So how can I manage inspiration when it hits out of the blue? Here are a few tools that I’ve found invaluable:
1. Evernote - I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–Evernote is a killer writing tool. When I have an idea that hits right before I fall asleep, I’ll grab my Windows Mobile phone off the nightstand (I use it as an alarm clock, so it’s always handy), fire up Evernote, jot down the idea, and then sync the note to my Evernote account. It’s then accessible from the desktop version of Evernote (Mac or Windows), my mobile device, or the Evernote web interface. I can tag the note with a story name or other identifier so that it’s easy to call up later when I’m ready to use it. I honestly don’t know how I got by without Evernote on all my devices.
2. Jott - I have a long commute to work each day, and some of the best ideas hit me when I’m in the middle of the highway. I can’t exactly pull over and grab my notebook, and it’s not very safe to try and use Evernote while I drive. Jott to the rescue! Jott is a phone service that allows you to manage your life hands-free–you can take quick notes, add appointments and get schedule reminders, add to your to-do list, Twitter right from your phone, blog, and more! I added the secret Evernote email address (Tip: Check your Settings page to find your own Evernote address!) as one of my addresses in Jott. The Evernote email address allows you to email yourself notes that get automatically added to your Evernote account. Adding it to Jott means I can call up, Jott to myself, and the note will get transcribed into Evernote. Now I can take notes on the go without ever lifting my hands from the steering wheel.
3. Circa 3×5 PDA - This is my favorite analog writing tool for managing ideas. If I’m at home, or sitting at my desk at work, or anywhere that I can write things down the good ol’ fashioned way, I use notecards. They help me break my ideas down into plot points, character cards, important notes, etc. Then I punch the cards using my awesome Levenger Circa punch and file them on a set of rings set up to handle 3×5 cards. I even made hard plastic covers for each end of the Circa PDA to protect my notes. I am experimenting with entering my notes into an interface like StorYbook or SuperNotecard to have a digital backup of all my analog inspirations.
How do you manage inspiration?
Word Counts - Today: 0 | May: 4,473 | 2008: 4,473
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
The Host: A Novel
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Buccaneers (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
One thing I’ve started to do is Twitter tips that I want to use in my email newsletter. I’ve always included a lot of odds and ends and by twittering them I accomplish two goals:
1. It leaves a reminder trail for me to read
2. It creates keyword rich web links, which may (or may not) have SEO value
I also vote a big thumbs up for Evernote. Their sync ability is right on the mark and I predict that they’re going to be bought before they ever get this out of beta (and it’s tough to call it beta because it works so well)