A-1 Assignments

G3 1

The brain, particularly one which lives in a writer’s head, is fantastic for simultaneously gaining and losing information. Within a few moments, a magical happenstance of “being in the right place at the right time”, an idea can pop into the mind. Sometimes an accessory to another idea, sometimes a whole other thought, it often slips in as an author, fumbling with grocery and shopping bags, realizes they don’t have a pen or paper.

I’ve been caught in a similar situation myself. Strolling through the mall, a singular great thought swarms into my head. I have no paper and/or paper, and have to rely on myself to remember to write it down when I get home…after putting my expensive-but-I-never-buy-anything-for-myself-so-I’ll-get-it buys into my disorganized closet. What usually happens is I start to throw my items in my drawers, but pause in mundation. A few hours later, I’m holding a paint brush in one hand, shoving furniture around in the other, but pause long enough to go, “Wait, wasn’t I supposed to be doing something when I got home?”

The problem with relying on the mind on its own is that something will pop up on your way home or on your search for a pen that will distract you. If you don’t have what you need nearby, you’ll soon forget what you’re looking for and why.

When you write, ideas can pop up in the most unusual of places. You can’t always depend on your memory or that notepad you left by the computer to help you when you’ve X amount of work due in half an hour, you have to do everything on the computer, and the internet service for the company has gone haywire.

Notebooks are, by far, the easiest to work with. The pages tear out (in case of run-ins with a coffee cup and a hyperactive two year old), are usually hole-punched so you can put truly inspired works into a binder, and come in assorted sizes. Not only are they good for the writer who wants to hold onto ideas, but are also good for journals. When someone inadvertently picks up your notebook and reads a journal entry, just grin and say, “Hey, that’s a work in progress.” You’re not lying and they assume that it’s for a story. It’s the perfect accomplice.

Keeping a notebook has kept my ideas in line, as well as helped me keep track of them. I’ve even noticed that ideas flow better and faster with paper and pen near. Instead of just the occasional thought or so, I soon found that I had to concentrate on not writing.

A writer really can’t afford not to own a notebook. For one, they come in different sizes, colors, and price ranges. For another, it may help that Nobel-winning idea from slipping from an idea to hazy history. Really, the only downside is that it may actually force you to write the novel you always say you’re going to write.




Mundation: verb. The act of cleaning. Noun. The state of being clean.
http://www.brownielocks.com/words.html
Mun`da´tion: noun. 1.The act of cleansing.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Mundation