There you are, happily occupied and focused on life. Suddenly, an idea hits you. Words or images bombard your senses, prying you from what’s important. You try to resist. You fight back the urge to be creative. After all, life takes precedent, doesn’t it? Life pays the bills.
But that pesky little thing called inspiration won’t go away. It’s calling, it’s screaming. Ugh. You stop what you’re doing and pay attention, only to discover that this is good. No, it’s fabulous. Your intentions change. Instead of blocking the words and pictures, now you want to keep them coming. You clear your mind, change the music, and do anything you can to keep the ideas flowing.
Where’s a pen? No luck. You rush to find a pencil. Now there’s no paper. As you scramble to capture your thoughts, the inspiration leaves you; slowly, at first, then faster. The images fade into life, leaving you with broken bits of memory.
Inspiration has no timeline and no limits. What action do you take when it finds you?
I have had that happen to me several times, but I finally said enough is enough. Now I don't hesitate to whip out my phone and record audio or video (if hand motions are needed) in order to minimize any lost ideas. I can drop them onto my OneNote ideas page or just type a blurb into my ideas for later area.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Shain. Inspiration seems to always find me in the car. I scramble to capture what I can once I arrive to where I'm going.
ReplyDeleteOnce inspiration had me jumping up in the middle of movie in search of a pen and something to write on.
ReplyDeleteA new character was talking me, and spilling out his entire story. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where I put the scribbling now :(
Carolyn, that's sad. Definately let us know if you ever find the scribbling, especially after all the effort to capture your inspiration. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI love this feeling so much, when ideas suddenly well up within the brain and need to spill out somewhere, anywhere. I've taken to carrying my writing journal and pen with me everywhere I go, and I've also downloaded a voice recorder on my cell phone to allow me to record any ideas I have while driving. Case in point, the idea for my current WIP came while driving to school.
ReplyDeleteThe worst, though, is when I'm half-asleep and inspiration strikes. I've lost many hours of rest that way. :D