Write Down Ideas When They Come

[alexander_k]

What I like about this thread is that it gives us a hundred reasons for having quite a few fountain pens around at home - excellent!

[Lamyrada]

Wow! Thanks! A lot to think about!

[Newjelan]

Thanks everyone, this thread is really interesting, please keep it coming.

[sidthecat]

I've also discovered that as I've gotten old, I forget stuff. There's a practical aspect to wearing a ringtop pen on a lanyard and keeping a little journal in my pocket: if I don't write it down when I think it, it will be gone.

[Paddler]

I just read a short bio of Hayden Schilling. He was a college professor for 51 years. He just retired this year. When his students complained of writer's block, he told them, "Just get something on the page -- after that you're only editing."

[Runnin_Ute]

I'm lucky if I get words on a page in a journal, but I had an experience a few years ago that is related to this thread. My wife through her work had gotten us tickets to a performance of the Utah Symphony. It was long enough ago I don't recall what was being performed that night. We had very good seats, that we didn't have to pay for. (a foundation she works with was sponsoring the performance if I recall correctly)

 

Just before the performance started a man came in who as it turns out is a local billionaire and sat next to me. I knew exactly who he was. In addition to the performance, I kept an eye on him in my peripheral vision. During the performance he pulled out a pen and started taking notes about something on the playbill. I found that behavior quite revealing about why he is where he is and where most of us are where we are economically speaking. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he kept a pen and paper at his bedside. He passed away in 2008 and was worth $4.5 billion at the time of his death.

 

The point? Having something to write with and on is a valuable behavior to emulate.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Runnin_Ute

[e-beth]

 

Give your brain time to make connections. For me, one of those times is working in the garden.

 

In grad school, it was well-known that the most interesting ideas came to you while in the shower. With the current drought in California, I take such short showers, there's not much time for ruminating. But, any fairly monotonous physical activity seems to work--knitting is a good one for me.

[Ceilidh]

Thank you for this thread, Waski. It's fascinating!

[Ghost Plane]

Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

Highly recommend it.

[inkstainedruth]

Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

Highly recommend it.

+1 on that. Doing the Morning Pages is what led me to fountain pens. I needed to do something to make myself do it regularly until I got into the habit, so I bought a cheap Parker cartridge pen and a nice journal. That lead me to a better pen, and eventually to here; and the rest, as they said, is history....

Never finished the book (tried to redo it last fall, but got bogged down in Chapter 9). I may make another stab at it at some point. But I did find that I was writing poetry for the first time since college, and even attempting fiction. The act of writing by hand is the stimulus and FPs are the tools of choice.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jmccarty3]

 

In grad school, it was well-known that the most interesting ideas came to you while in the shower.

 

I certainly found that to be true when I was a teenager.

 

But seriously folks, I enjoy mystery and espionage thrillers, and nowadays these tend to have extremely complex plots that almost certainly have to be planned out in advance. It's fun to look for the character who just sort of appears, or says something, or does something for no apparent reason in the early part of the book. Often this person will turn out to be the villain, or in some other way to be critical to the outcome of the plot. Sometimes I think these authors are just trying to see if we're paying attention.

[Ghost Plane]

+1 on that. Doing the Morning Pages is what led me to fountain pens. I needed to do something to make myself do it regularly until I got into the habit, so I bought a cheap Parker cartridge pen and a nice journal. That lead me to a better pen, and eventually to here; and the rest, as they said, is history....

Never finished the book (tried to redo it last fall, but got bogged down in Chapter 9). I may make another stab at it at some point. But I did find that I was writing poetry for the first time since college, and even attempting fiction. The act of writing by hand is the stimulus and FPs are the tools of choice.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I notice she has videos by topic on her website.