“Carry a pen and notebook.”

This tip has stood me in good stead many times. Wonderful ideas can strike when you’re driving (pull over before you start writing), shopping, waiting in a queue, daydreaming, or on the boundaries between sleeping and waking – anytime, anywhere. Even swimming, bathing or showering, Catch those ideas while they’re fresh!

This post is, of course, related to my 1st April post “Strange places to get inspired.”

You can, of course, also use other means to record your ideas. When a pen and paper aren’t at hand I’ve often used a notepad or voice-recording app on my smartphone.

As a last resort, you can always try recording your ideas in your memory . . but unless you have a pretty accurate and durable memory, I don’t recommend this.

The thing about creativity is, it’s most likely to strike when you’re not thinking of anything much at all. It bubbles from your subconscious at times when your mind is freely drifting. You can’t force it to happen by sitting down in front of a keyboard or notebook and saying to yourself, “Right! Now I am going to write a story.” (At least, that’s not the way it works for me. )

Which is why carrying recording material of some sort wherever you go, is a great tip for writers. I always recommend pen and paper because when ideas flow from your brain down your arm to your moving, pen-holding hand (so to speak) they are just better. That’s my opinion (and I’ve discussed it in another earlier post Copy by Hand!).

Some writers carry ornate notebooks around with them, and that’s okay too. For myself, I tend to accumulate fragments and scraps of paper with sentences and half-sentences and apparently random words scrawled on them at every angle. We do whatever we need to do, to achieve our aims.