Don’t Lose Great Story Ideas in the Depths of Your Imagination
Novelists seem to be able to come up with great story ideas at any given time and in any given situation: morning walks, feeding the baby, staff meetings, sitting in traffic, discussing politics with a friend, etc.
So you have all of these story ideas that bubble up in your imagination, sometimes perhaps at not exactly the most opportune times. How can you make sure these wonderful ideas don’t get lost in the depths of your fertile imagination?
Well, it comes down to what a story idea is worth to you. As a novelist myself, I know from personal experience that when a great story idea strikes and I think for certain that I’ll have no trouble remembering it, the idea typically slips away unless I am intentional about saving the idea in some fashion.
My first method of saving ideas was to carry a pen and small notepad with me so that when a story idea (or an idea for a current work) came along, I could jot it down. This method worked quite well, and still does when the situation calls for a quiet, discreet way of making some notes for myself. But then something better came along.