I think up weird stuff; sometimes I write it down

by Patricia Hamill

I think up weird stuff; sometimes I write it down.

I think that's standard fare for fiction writers, and I can attest it's true for myself, even though I haven't actively written a story for a couple of years now.

The lack of writing these odd thoughts, random musings and ridiculous scenarios hasn't stopped them from invading my thoughts in my day to day life. Sometimes I blurt them out to a mix of chuckles, confusion, or awkward silence. I'd like to think the chuckles win out.

Still, I think this flair for thinking up the impossible and improbable or imagining "what if" scenarios with only a tenuous link to reality are what make fiction possible.

But it's the writing it down that I struggle with.

I see a lot of writers who carry around a little notebook, not letting a single one of these gems go by, but the habit has never stuck with me. Instead, only a few make it onto a post it or stick around long enough for me to take a harder look at them.

I tried my hand at a diary once, and I imagine the notebook would be similar. The first week or two, solid notes every day. Then it skips a week, or two, or a month. Pretty soon, it's three years later and I've found the thing under the side table in the living room housing a family of spiders who, in all honesty, are welcome to stay there because it's not worth the cringe factor to evict them.

So, writing it down is a challenge. I wrote this statement down (the one at the very top), and that's why I'm expounding on it now. So yeah, maybe I should do that more.

And that brings me to the last point. 

Thinking it up and writing it down are critical, but you have to go back and look at it again, do something with it.

Even if I did write every idea in a notebook, how likely would it be that I would open the thing, flip through, and look at what I wrote? And if I didn't do that, how likely would it be that I would turn one or more of those random thoughts into a story or article?

To both questions: not very.

So, what do I do? 

I only write a few of them down, usually the ones I can't get out of my mind or that seem to resonate with myself or others. And then I make a point of going back and doing something with them, whether that be an article, a story, a meme, or a random post on social media.

When inspiration strikes, the key is to go back to it, to use it, to share it with the world.

If you don't, it's lost to all but you and the spiders, and the spiders don't care.


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P.S. If you're not a fan of spiders, my apologies. If you are a fan, no worries. No actual spiders were harmed or displaced in the writing of this article.

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