Capture your ideas
Simon Whaley explores the tricky art of keeping track of ideas and chats to one writer to find out how they do it
Simon Whaley
Ionce woke in the middle of the night with an idea for a new cosy crime novel. Realising how important this was, I grabbed the notebook and pen I keep on my bedside table for this exact purpose and scribbled away. I was so keen to get the idea down on paper I didn’t bother putting on the bedside light. When I’d finished writing, I settled back to sleep, smug in the knowledge that I had captured my brilliant idea.
When I awoke the following morning, I remembered I’d had an idea, but I couldn’t recall what it was. So I found my notebook and turned to the page in question to find. . .
Well, it wasn’t a great idea. In fact, there were no recognisable words at all. All I could make out on the page was an indeterminable scribble. I panicked and flicked through the pages. Had I written it somewhere else? Eventually, realisation dawned. That scribble was what I’d written in the dark last night. The idea was gone. Forever. As writers, we always need ideas because our writing business is nothing without them. But we don’t just need to have ideas. We also need a reliable system of capturing, storing, and then retrieving them when needed.
Capture first
Antony Johnston is a New York Times bestselling author, whose latest novel is the first in his new cosy crime series, The Dog Sitter Detective. He writes in a variety of genres, from graphic novels (The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde is based on his graphic novel of the same title), thrillers, survival horror, and video games. He’s also written a productivity guide for writers called The Organised Writer.