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Without my laptop so of course I came home with two paper napkins covered in notes for a new novel. (FINALLY an idea for a new novel.) The moral being never leave home without a computer.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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First off, this sound likes a tip, that would be tip #?
Second, FINALLY, would make me think you have been after ideas for a while now. Therefore maybe you should leave the computer behind more often, hey? Now I am going to try for the smily face.
Congrats on the new idea.
Edited: As in my novel, I found many words to cut.
[This message has been edited by Tiergan (edited June 05, 2008).]
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I used to be heavy into photography. I never saw those cool pictures when I had a camera with me. Only when there was no way to get the picture. I once saw a tornado about a hundred feet above a building but no film in the camera I was carrying...
If you carry a laptop where ever you go, you will never come up with an idea. I have dozens of tear sheet note pads spread around, so I can write a note if I need it. My ideas are noted on there, reminding me of the idea, and I then develop it farther once I get home.
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Don't know about the voice recorder. If I carried one of those around, I couldn't shake the picture of myself as Norm MacDonald in Dirty Work, pulling out my recorder every couple of minutes to record a "Note to self..."
Posts: 500 | Registered: May 2008
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I've been notebooking it at my kids' swim lessons this week - forty minutes of uninterrupted bliss (if I stick my ipod headphones in and blast something to drown out the sounds of splashing, whistles blowing, the echos, and other parent chatter that is the chaos of fifty kids learning to swim simultaneously in an indoor pool. LOL)
I have found it to be really productive. I'm brainstorming a story idea right now and I feel like I'm getting farther, if you can believe it, on paper than I would if I were typing it. I am also free to do things like go up and down the paper, draw pictures, circle some text and draw an arrow somewhere else, and otherwise just making a royal mess of my notes. It's kind of... liberating.
Glad you got some brainstorming done. I have written entire articles (first draft, of course) on the backs of the random sheets of paper my kids bring home from school or activities - notes from the PTA, coloring sheets from gymnastics, whatever. LOL
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It reminds me of going back to college for my second degree.
What used to happen in coffee shops(group study, discussion, etc)is now all done on interactive forums. In class, I could barely put a name with a face, yet I had talked, studied with them countless hours from a remote location.
Sometimes it is good to put the Mirado Black Warrior (my pencil preference) to paper. Human interractions are also very inspiring to story writers. I should put the laptop down more and go for a walk with a notebook. I might be a better writer for it.
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I agree with those who said 'leave the laptop at home more often.' I get all my ideas when I'm either driving across country from one assignment to another, or walking for pleasure, or sitting in a pub. My mind is free to wander, to take in new things I see or hear and extrapolate into the future, or juxtapose into characters, concepts and plots.
I think ideas come from fresh stimulation, getting oneself out of the same ole, same ole. For notes on the move I always carry a pen and some 3x5 index cards in a Levenger pocket briefcase.
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Wow, TaleSpinner, you are organized! I usually manage to carry around a notebook somewhere in the tote bag I use for a purse. I agree, though, there's something about being away from the computer, and being out and about that stimulates the mind. Some of my best story ideas and characters came during my long runs. About five miles out on the trail, boom, something would hit me, and then I'd race back home repeating whatever it was over and over in my head so I wouldn't forget.
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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My cell phone has a notepad function. Sometimes I write on that, or else on the voice recorder. When I'm writing notes, most people think I'm sending a text message, which is sorta funny, since I've never actually sent one. When I bought my phone, I got offered some Billion Texts Per Month Super Bonus Package, but all I wanted was a 24 hr clock. They didn't have any phones with that, much to my chagrin, so I took the cheapest one in the store.
Oh, and receipts work well, too.
You'd be surprised, actually, how much dialog you can fit on your forearm.
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I have a desktop, a laptop and most recently an ASUS EEE PC. It comes with linux and open office. I run windows 2000 on it, although you can install a slipstreamed version of XP, and use AbiWord. The whole thing weighs less than a kilo and is about A5 size.
It is great for when you don't want to commit to lugging a heavy laptop about. My EEE PC cost about £200 and althought the keyboard is small I can type at my usual speed once my fingers have adapted (they shrink!).
I must say I have been very impressed with it. I can't be doing with napkins.
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I LOVE writing in notebooks, but I find that I'm less focused on one story over time. On the computer, pop open my story, keep typing away at it. In my notebook...I usually flip through the pages and look at doodles, or cool ideas from a week ago. And then I start something new or different.
I try to save notebooks for when I need a fresh moment. Otherwise, I keep them on the shelf while I punch away at what I know I need to get down.
The Tape Recorder makes me think of Michael Keaton from the movie, Night Shift. He always says crazy things into it, one of them being about feeding Tuna Fish Mayonaise to it comes ready in the can. Loved his character in that movie.
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annepin - my mother-in-law gave me one of those pocket briefcases years ago. I dug it out of the far reaches of the top drawer of my desk (aka the black hole) about six months ago, purchased some new cards for it (I'm addicted to grid paper, I don't like to write on plain lined paper) and now it's what I carry in my purse for my anywhere/anytime stuff.
There's also something really hilarious in Anne Lamott's book "Bird by Bird" - her writing book. She talks about carrying an index card with her everywhere, because as a writer you just never know where inspiration will strike, but she folds it lengthwise. Crossways tucked into a pocket would be too bulky, and you know as a woman it doesn't do to be bulky in the middle. It was there in that book that I determined writers are all neurotic. Somehow that was reassuring to me, not sure why.
quote:So yes, ask for a serviette over here if you're at the dinner table. Unless you're really messy.
Is it me or are these differences in British/ American English designed to trap us into embarrassing situations?
KayTi, yes, that section of the book made me laugh. I remember thinking yes, she's quite neurotic, and then thinking, wait, I have a lot of little neuroses too, when it comes to writing.
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Napkin in the UK is something to wipe your mouth with too. Here is a thread where they discuss its usage (serviette versus napkin) and apparent relationship with your background/perceived class.
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That makes me working class then. No surprise there.
quote:Is it me or are these differences in British/ American English designed to trap us into embarrassing situations?
Depends what Americans mean by "embarrassing" ;-)
There's potential for embarrassment whenever nations talk. Kennedy famously said when he visited Germany, "Ich bin ein Berliner". He meant, "I am a Berliner" but some of us think it means "I am a jelly donut." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
Not all the differences between American and the Queen's English are slang. Amongst my favourites are the American usage of "gotten" and "oftentimes" which over here have fallen out of use. To to our ears American can sound quaint, an echo from a century or two past.
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Well, as far as alternative paper supplies go...sometimes I'm in the bathroom, and while I'm sitting there an idea hits me...but the paper in there is so hard to write on...anybody besides me have that problem?
(I was just reading an article that talked, in part, of how German words, fallen out of general use in Germany, were retained in the dialects of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Volgadeutch, among others. So it's a common phenomenon, not specifically linked to English.)
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