Tag Archives: notebooks

Here’s An Idea . . .

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Last night my good guy surprised me with a wonderful dinner out.  If you like french food and live in the Denver area, I’d recommend trying La Merise in Cherry Creek.  Prices are way too high, and the meal takes forever and a day to put in front of you, but the food is well worth it.

Anyway, on the drive home, and after a glass or two of wine, we got to talking about books. My guy said he’s probably read six books this month alone.  Six books! How great is that? He works a full-time job, writes on Facebook, stays up with politics and sports, ballroom dances, yet still makes time to read voraciously. Wow.

photo of books about ideas and more

Getting and organizing ideas.

I had to admit I haven’t completed any. Yes, I’m in the middle of Harold Robbins’ The Predators, but I’m also reading High Probability Selling by Jacques Werth and Nicholas E. Ruben as part of my consulting work, still dipping into Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and have just started to dive into a fun read called Where Do You Get Your Ideas? by Fred White.  Guess I like my reading the way others like eating tapas–a small bite at a time.  You could call this reading style either Attention Deficit Disorder run wild, or you could be kind, and say I have eclectic reading tastes.  I prefer the latter, thank you.

But I want to share with you the concept of capturing ideas for writing from Where Do You Get Your Ideas?  I’ve seen whole books on the subject of organizing story ideas before, and I have to admit that Mr. White’s proposed binder with wandering spiral is intriguing.  He even goes so far as to recommend different colored paper to capture notes in different ways.  This kind of system has always appealed to me in the past.  The challenges come for me in the process of maintaining an idea file or notebook.  Here’s why:

  • Jotting ideas down, to me, needs to be a regular habit.  If I were to wait until I was inspired, I wouldn’t have any published work yet. And just carrying around a pocket notebook isn’t a guarantee of anything more than having a scratch pad for the grocery list you need for tonight’s dinner.  But, I have to admit, I keep that notebook handy–just in case.
  • The binder Mr. White recommends should hold about 400 pages. Whew! I could fill that up, but given my clumsiness, I could see me accidentally dropping the book and all those pages flying around the room.  Then the dog would get excited and start chasing them, while the cat would screech and run off to a hiding spot.  And with my luck, just at that moment, there would be a fire alarm with “abandon the house!” orders . . .  okay. Imaginative moment. Sorry.
  • I have kept idea files, drawers, boxes, etc. before. Can’t seem to find them when I need them.  And to be honest, on that rare occasion when I come across them on a lazy afternoon of “there’s nothing to do, so let me look through all my junk,” most of the ideas are pretty lame.  I don’t pitch them, because you never know.  To me, I suspect that ideas have a shelf life of maybe a few months.

I’ve seen the concept of capturing ideas often. I have several spirals with scraps and starts. But one more notebook seems to me to be that last straw.  So here’s what I plan to do:

  1. Keep that wandering pocket notebook.  I bought a purse with a big pocket just for that purpose.
  2. Buy a one subject spiral with about 100 sheets of paper.  This is where I’ll jot notes from reading, story starts, character sketches, and all bits of creative writing.
  3. Once a notebook is filled, I’ll set aside an afternoon (or day or week) and type up the best exercises, lists, story ideas etc.  These documents will be filed . . . on my computer.  Then I can either pitch or store (yes, I can feel my mother cringing–NO STORING JUNK!) the old spiral and treat myself to a new one.
  4. I like to sketch ideas too, so I’ll need to become skilled at scanning documents, but this isn’t a rocket science skill so that shouldn’t be a problem.

How about you? How do you capture your great ideas? How do you get rid of old spiral friends? I’d love to hear from you.

Have a creative week, my friend.

Pot Shots. . . And So We Begin

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I have gone out and invested in a new spiral to keep notes for my next Daisy mystery–Pot Shots.  As you may know, I try to title my books with a symbol of the first victim and how they were killed.  Not sure if you knew that I tend to come up with a general topic to think about and the title of the book, even before I create my first new characters.

Right now, Colorado is enjoying the limelight that comes with being one of the first states in the union to legalize recreational pot.  It makes for a natural overarching topic to explore. And the legalization brings up all sorts of interesting challenges for citizens and law enforcement alike. I’m watching from the sidelines.

Pot Shots Notes

“The Game’s Afoot!”

Getting teased about the kind of research I need to do for this next story is a lot of fun too.  I mean after all, without proper research, how can I truly describe a Rocky Mountain High?  Could I write about someone who literally goes up in smoke? And playing with a cash-based business (banks are closely tied with federal government and can’t risk losing the FDIC connection) is just too much opportunity for trouble.

I don’t want to give away where exactly I’m going with the story, but for those who have read Faith on the Rocks, I’ll just let you know that I’m going to give Chip McPherson a mom who comes from California and has the most seductive brownie recipe you could imagine. Or is this too trite a thought? Hmm.

As for writing a novel, each author has his or her own style and process.  I’m trying to share mine with you in hopes that if you’re just starting your own novel-writing adventure, you might be able to take away some ideas for your work process.

Currently, I’m in the brainstorming phase.  This is the hardest, but most fun part of writing.  I have no plot yet, not even an opening scene.  I know very little about the topic of legalized marijuana, but am well aware of my personal biases on the topic.  So, here’s the plan …

  • February and March – research.  Jot down trivia about marijuana and the debate occurring across the country right now.  Visit a dispensary. Talk to people who I know use this drug. Get a feel for the topic and the type of characters I’ll want to experience the story.
  • March and April – put together a list of characters and a few murderous scenarios.  Unlike some other authors I’ve met, I need to know who killed whom and why before I even start a story.  Others like to write their tale, then go back and plant clues.  I like to plant clues along the way. It’s kind of like a game of hide-and-seek to me. Both writing styles work.
  • By May I want to have an outline complete.  Thanks to Scrivener, a large writing project toolkit, this should be easier than my 3×5 card system I’ve used in the past.  We’ll see.
  • June and for the next weeks and months beyond I’ll write the story out. It would be great to have a quicker first draft than in my other two efforts. It took from 2007 to 2012 to get Faith written, rewritten, and published.  I worked from 2012 through the end of 2013 to write Sliced Vegetarian, and I don’t know yet if it will be accepted for publication. My goal for Pot Shots is to be done by the end of 2014.  Did you know that Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was researched in seven weeks and published the following year in a newspaper series?  If you have suggestions on how to be more productive in writing, I’d love to hear from you.
  • That’s it.  Simple–like chess.

If you have strong feelings about the marijuana debate, please do contact me.  Right now, my mind is a blank slate waiting for thoughts and feelings to form my opinion–and next story.