Planting Writing Seeds

One of the fascinating aspects of writing stems from the manner in which ideas percolate in our minds. Many of us realize these little bursts of ideas live fleeting lives. For this reason, we use all manner of devices to write down tidbits, nuggets of truth and whimsical mental gyrations. I use my iPhone for jotting notes on the notepad, or I use the voice recorder.

I also possess napkins, envelopes, scrap paper and index cards where ideas landed for fear of fading into the recesses of lost memory. I own papers written in Sharpies, Crayon, pen, pencil, - even highlighter! A good idea should not fall by the wayside, lost, forgotten, never to step back into your mind quite the same again.

Capturing the essence of the idea, I found over the years, requires as much discipline as jotting down the note in the first place. How many notes do I own that I can make no sense from the writing? Far too many. Sometimes, a snippet, a phrase, lends me enough material to proceed from, but often I need to add more information.

A note that cannot be deciphered will frustrate a writer. My muse, at times, requires a slight kick in the ass to get moving. The crazy aspect of this note-taking business is that the muse usually kicks the idea to the forefront in the first place. Then later, when you decide the time is ripe to pursue the train of thought, the muse balks. What is up with that?

This is why good notes work. They don't necessarily have to be lengthy, just muse-inspiring. Like the internet, keywords lend a huge hand. The muse loves to fill in blanks. The shell of the idea garners the strength, while the muse fills out the fullness of the writing.

This is where most of us feel that joy - at least I feel it here. The freedom to move around in a piece of writing with enough structure to own a direction and enough freedom to not know how you will arrive at your destination can be exhilarating. Even when I am emotionally down, the freedom to explore lifts me up. In these instances, I often flee to poetry. The joy of rising up from sorrow can reward a writer as much if not more than writing from a high point.

Not to knock writing from a comfort zone. Many days I've experience writing from a giddy heart, and I love what came out. Yet all this uplifting and joy, and positivity and freedom cannot come to fruition without the ideas that flit around us moment by moment.

For me, one trick of the trade clearly outdistances all others when it comes to breeding ideas for writing. I know you don't want to hear it (read it). I shied away, ran away, stomped away from this simple exercise for years. My position was, "C'mon, it cannot be that simple!" While I would never speak this out loud, somewhere within my heart, these thoughts crawled around with voracity.

The best idea breeder I've found is ...(where's the drumroll?) - write. What? What in the world does that mean? Looking back over the past five years, my most productive writing periods grew from Nanowrimo (where I write volumes every single day) and other times where I've focused on writing volume each day.

On other posts I've decried the virtues of 750words.com. This site prompts you to write every single day. The site also incorporates some cool analysis of your writing as well as some interesting challenges to get you to write each day. I've come to use the site as more of a 'journal' site. This clears my mind of clutter and when the clutter dissipates, ideas fill in the gaps.

Now, when I do not take the time to make note of these ideas - good note - clutter falls back into my writing bucket-brain, so to speak. The more junk I shovel out, the more good stuff I can replace back in. Who knows all the reasons writing every day works. Each writer has their own style - their own method. My experience over 30 years of writing comes down to this - when I write, the writing begets more writing. Ideas get chewed up and the appetite for more ideas becomes a drive that propels me forward.

So why stop? Once we start writing every day, why stop? Life usually gets in the way. Again, everyone is different, but everyone has a life and their particular set of circumstances will often pull them out of the writing flow.

I say, plant writing seeds. Every time you write down an idea, no matter what topic you write on, you plant a seed. Many seeds do not grow for lack of attention. Writing every day is the water and sunlight your seeds need in order to prosper. I plant many, many seeds. Like I said earlier, some of these seeds don't grow because they were bad to begin with. Bad because I did not nurture them enough when planting. This most often means I planted them too shallow (not enough information to make it grow).

You must plant if you want something to grow. Write down your ideas. Realize the importance of not attempting to allow your memory to do all the work. We are not that focused these days. Then nurture your seeds by giving them loads of attention. Write every day.

It works!