Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Someone get me a pencil…

I know you’ve all done this. You’ve been half asleep or driving your car in traffic, or doing the dishes or making dinner or grocery shopping and an idea has come to you. Whether it was a fresh and new inspiration for a book, a way to make your story stronger or a specific sentence for a certain scene.

How many times have you gone looking for a pen, pencil, marker or even a crayon to try and write the idea down before it dissipates? I tried keeping a notebook and pencil by my bed but usually I can’t read my writing the next morning. I usually keep a notebook in my purse but of course the few times that I actually wanted to write something down I’ve forgotten it.

Once when I was driving home from work a sentence came to me. It was the prologue for a new project. It was clear, it was brilliant and it was awesome. I focused on it for the whole ride home. I ran in the front door, raced to my computer and wrote it down. I read it out loud. The sentence was not clear, or brilliant nor awesome. It was awkward and didn’t really make sense.

It’s funny how that happens. I guess it just goes to show that I’m obviously a better writer in my head than I am on paper. One day the brilliant sentences and story ideas that are in my head will more easily transfer to the real world.

For all the Canadians out there.

Happy Canada Day.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Canada Day!

This happens (or used to happen to me before my writing well went dry) to me all the time. When it does, I repeat the sentence over and over in my mind until I get a chance to write it down.

Anonymous said...

Happy Canada Day! it rained and rained and rained.

This does happen to me so often I keep a tiny notebook in my purse. The ones that come in the middle night are hard, but sometimes, the next night, they re-appear, and if I am prepared, I get to jot them down:)

Jenni James said...

LOL! Happy Canada Day! And erm, I do this same thing so much I just had to chuckle. In my head I'm a much more prolific writer than I actually am! LOL! of course there are days when i think i'm skinnier than I am too. Hehehe! So maybe it's just me! Jenni

Patti said...

SW: repetition is a good thing.

Jennifer: That sucks that it rained on Canada Day. We floated down the river but then the wind came.

Jenni: I'm also a much better soccer player in my head.

Dara said...

Yeah, I understand the whole searchinig for a pencil thing. Most of my ideas come while I'm in the shower.

Perhaps I should invest in some bathtub crayons?

But then comes the issue of cleaning it off the walls...

Jessica Nelson said...

That's hilarious Patti, about the sentence being better in your head than on paper. LOL! I've had that with scenes. It played out so beautifully in my head but when I wrote it down it just wasn't what I expected. lol

Thank you for stopping by my blog. :-)

JKB said...

I've had that happen, too.

Happy Belated Canada day!

I carry my iPod Touch on me, all the time, and have become adept at typing long sentences into anotes program I have on there. It helps

Heidi Willis said...

Happy belated Canada Day! I was so busy scarfing 4th of July burgers down I missed it!

I don't do it so much with actual sentences for my book, but I've done it with plot ideas, and with query pitches. I woke up once with the PERFECT query pitch in my head. I grabbed a flashlight on my nightstand and scribbled it down and then went back to sleep crazy happy at myself.

when I woke up and read it, it hardly made sense. :)

Amber Lynae said...

I love your post, this happens to me a lot too. I'm also a much thinner person in my head. That is why I avoid mirrors. :)