Chasing After Ideas With a Paper and Pen

by Samar Owais @ The Writing Base

Since my post on recording ideas (in which I practically stuffed a pen in your bags/briefcases/pockets), I decided to add something to my pen carrying habit. Instead of just being satisfied at having a pen in my bag, I decided to make sure to take the pen out every time I had a few minutes.

Chasing My Ideas

I added a small book in my tote and stuck a pen in it. I took it out every time I was out, was waiting for something or had a few minutes. I took it out on my way to school, waiting for my class, and on my way back. I even pulled it out while playing scrabble as I waited for other people to complete their turns. I wanted to see if I could make ideas come to me when I called them.

Coming up a Blank the First Time

The first time I took the note book and pen out, all I did was stare at the blank page and finally ended up doodling my name. Not a single thought or idea came to me. The second time, I was getting frustrated again when a thought occurred to me. “What does a person do when brain storming fails?” I wrote it down immediately.

All it Can Take is One Idea or Thought to Open the Floodgates

That thought is still sitting alone on a page. But it catapulted my brain into overdrive. Soon afterwards my brain was flooding with possibilities in answer to that question. Most of them were discarded almost immediately. But the ideas stemming from them took a whole new direction.

Jot Down Everything

Suddenly, I’m filling pages. Not every idea I get is good (actually, most of the are plain mediocre) or even well thought out but I write everything down and go through each point later. What seems like a bad idea today, may present an opportunity tomorrow. “Always remember, one bad idea gives rise to 10 better and at least one great one!” That used to be my father’s mantra every time I would stop myself from voicing an idea saying it was ’stupid’.

My own mantra? Get the bad ideas out as fast as you can and make way for the great ones. Okay, so I may have heard my dad say that one too.

Finally: A Habit Formed

After doing this for the past two weeks, scribbling in my notebook has become a habit. My fingers start to itch if I’m sitting idle for more than a few minutes and stepping out without a notebook is unthinkable!

What do you do? Do you wait for ideas to come to you or do you go chasing after them?