Where Ideas Hang Out

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”  - John Steinbeck

A friend of mine once asked, "How do you keep track of your ideas?"

Personally, I like to write them in my journal book or on a sticky note and slap it into my journal book.  I do keep a small leather notebook on a bookshelf.  Each page has an idea, a potential character name, careers for my characters,  a potential book title, a plot idea, etc.

I have ideas all over the place but they eventually end up in one place.  I'm slightly disorganized with my ideas but they tend to grow.  For instance, the book I'm working on now was written in a certain way but I didn't like it.  So I changed it but still didn't like it.  I put the book down trying to figure out the best way to tell the story I wanted. It sat for weeks and months.  I'd tackle it here and there and then nearly gave up on it.  It was during a journal write that inspiration struck.  I had come up with an interesting idea.  It meant ditching what I had written and starting completely over but it was worth it.

An idea is like a seed.  You have this baby idea and then it starts to grow and mature into a great idea.

When it comes to keeping track of your ideas there is no right or wrong answer. As writers, we all have our ways of dealing with our ideas.  Find what works best for you.

Ideas can be like a runaway train - in a good way!  With that in mind, it seems only appropriate that today's music treat is Albert Lee performing Runaway Train.