Paper Weight

I'm not sure if this is something everyone already does, or just pretentious would-be author types. But I find it useful so much of the time. In fact, I think "Don't Shoot The" already suggested this is one form or another. So this will be another form.

Find a way of keeping a pen and paper--preferably in the form of a booklet, perhaps with a spiral flip top like Hariet the Spy--on you at all times. Well pretty much all times. Important here is figuring out a way of including it in your everyday, almost forgettable location such that it can always stay with you. I find the little paper bound mole skins ideal for a back pocket.

Now let me tell you how they work. Well, they allow you always to be the one to offer a pen when needed, or the scrap of paper somewhat easier to scrawl upon than the inside cover of a matchbox. (There are some great collapsable pens on the market these days that make this even easier.) But what they really offer you in the quick and fast way of getting down those killer thoughts you have. So many ideas from this little dusty corner of the internet come from just that quickly scrawled notes, usually in the form of titles. Its a way to get down those brilliant flashes of amalgamated sentence structure that creep into your brain and are just as quick to crawl out.

None, you might be thinking at this point: voice recorder pen. Or maybe even, cell phone voice notation crap. I'm here to tell you...no. Please tell me if a) you've ever used one of those things and b) if once using one of those things, you've ever actually gone back and transcribed or in any other way used one of those voice notes. The answer is that you haven't unless you're a) a journalist or b) far too big a fan of Dale Cooper for your own good.

Plus! When you've filled up your portable scrapbook you'll have a pictures of the random bits of your life in crumpled pocket form. Records people. Keep 'em. Elsewise all your thinking might just drift away into the digital dust.