It doesn’t matter what kind of notebook you get. I like a small one (9.5X6) because that way I can carry it around with me essentially everywhere.
Open it, and on the top right hand corner of the page, smear a yellow highlighter. Now write the date with your Tul pen. Don’t do it the other way around! The operative word there is “smear”.
It takes about a day to get your Tul pen working nicely, by the way.
Now, on the left margin, draw an underscore line. ___________ Then wait. Any thought or to-do you have goes to the right of the underscore line. Why?
____X_____ Need to have an umbrella in first scene
See? It’s a check off spot. It’s not enough to come up with ideas, but you have to keep track of them as well. I also have a habit of lining them out afterwards.
____X_____ Need to have an umbrella in first scene
There’s no question if I got to that or not. You can come up with your own system, what works for you. But during the day, you’re going to come up with a million ideas, and no – you won’t remember them. Get into the habit of every day bringing that notebook with you, keeping it open, and waiting for ideas to come up. After 21 days of this, you’ll find that ideas and to-do’s are FLOODING your head. Why? It takes 21 days to create a habit. This is training your mind to come up with ideas, and to WRITE THEM DOWN.
Here’s the catch – I come up with 3 1/2 pages of ideas a day. Most of them are to-do’s, and probably if I got the Full Focus planner, it would end up taking about 50% of my notebook’s contents. But many of them are also novel and script ideas, and some of my hobbies (I like to make military dioramas).
NEVER THROW A NOTEBOOK AWAY. What ideas you didn’t get to in notebook one, five years from now and novel number 11, you’ll find a use for that umbrella scene.
When you open the notebook the next day, repeat the process. No matter where you are on the page, you’re going to find the first open line, and put the yellow highlighter there on the RIGHT, and put in the date.
You’re going to find you came up with good stuff. This now ELIMINATES your number one excuse for not writing your novel. “I can’t come up with any good ideas!”
Sure you van. you’re filling a notebook with them.
I bet Stephen King carries around a writer’s notebook. I bet Tom Clancy had one. You’re going to need something to capture ideas, and you need to start TODAY the practice of sitting or standing in front of an open notebook, ready to take ideas as you come up with them.
