Recording Ideas

Biloxi is behind me for awhile. There will be
another time and another visit.

On to this business of writing.

What is there about setting goals that seems
to increase productivity? I made a list and
as the song goes, "I'm checking it twice", and
I've completed three of my goals for the year
already.

Obviously, I need to set new goals. I should
have the gothic finished by the end of the
month and then I can begin to work on something
new.

When an author says he/she will start on something
new, chances are the idea has been tumbling around
in the brain for weeks, months, maybe even years.

My new story is definitely not new. The idea came
to me several years ago. I made a note of the
idea, worked up a short synopsis, stored it on a
floppy (remember those?) and now I'm ready to
develop it.

That points to another important aspect of writing
fiction, perhaps even non-fiction, although I've never
tried my hand at that. Ideas spring out of no where,
and they retreat to no where if you don't record them.
I, like many of my compatriots, have a place full of
ideas. I have a note book, well, really, I have
four notebooks. Two of those are full of names of places,
things that impressed me, a phrase, a word to describe
something I saw, a place we visited.

The other two notebooks are full of ideas, or a certain
kind of character and what might happen to him or her.
Any time an idea pops into my head, I either write it
down in one of the notebooks, or if I'm at the computer,
I store it in a file called, for some silly reason, IDEAS.

The new story I'll begin in March is from a notebook.
The idea occurred to me one day while I was shopping with my
daughter. I jotted it down (never leave home without a
notebook tucked in a pocket or purse) and when I got home
I transferred it to a floppy. Now, I'm ready to write
Carolyn's story.

I once offered a quote on my webpage. "We write not because
we want to, but because we have to."

I'm coming Carolyn!

Allison

Watch for Simon's Brides, coming in May '06
from Wings-ePress.

www.allisonknight.com