Keeping your notes

I write down everything I can and keep everything that I write down.

Why?

Before I get into that I have one thing to say:

Or sometimes simply destroyed by those they rail against....

“I've had enough of all this tsar-state stuff,” he wrote in a blog post. “With its lies, its cover-ups, its legalised theft, its bribe-taking and its other triumphs.” Alexei Devotchenko said that, a prominent Russian actor and anti Putin dissident, found dead under questionable circumstances this week. I'm with him on his anti-Putin thoughts. Whenever a fellow artist goes down, possibly for sharing his beliefs and speaking out against perceived wrongs, it hurts all of us.

Cheers Alexei, you have our gratitude and you will be missed, I'm sure....check out my blog tomorrow on Monday (November 10, 2014) for a full blog on Alexei and Putin.


Because when I get a good idea, it will still be a good idea when I can get around to doing something about it. IF, I write down enough information that it makes sense when I read it, later. It's also different than someone else telling you, "I have a good idea, you should write it down and produce it through your art." And "your art" being you're writer as I am, a painter, sculptor or whatever.

Here's the thing. When I get a "good" idea, it is a good idea because "I" thought of it.

Because I thought of it, there is a wealth of connections in my mind associated with it. If I don't write it down, I may never remember that key clue that leads to all those elements.

It's like I have an idea and I'm at one end of a long hallway. Along that hallway are doors opening into other idea elements which can also have doors themselves. It is a network of ideas I have generated and it is worth remembering.

If I don't write it down then I probably won't remember it and though I may still have that long hallway, I may from then on only see fractured elements of that one primary idea. If however I write it down, I most likely will be able to get to that place again at the end of the hallway and thus have access to most if not all of those doorways again.

If someone just tells me an idea, then I have the beginning of that hallway where it places me and though I can see perhaps down a hallway, there may be doors along that hall but they may be closed for me, locked, or completely nonexistent; where they may be available to that person who suggested it in the first place.

So then, they should write it, not me. Right? But, they never want to do that, they just want me to do it for them. The worst form of this is a new writer, who writes a (usually bad) first draft, asks you to help with it, then expects you simply to rewrite it, make it sell-able and then sometimes, sell it. And give them the credit, though sometimes, they offer me co-credit. Which I really don't need, and they certainly do.

It comes out in the end, very fair for them and yet not really at all fair for me. That may sound unfair on my part, but live through that a few times and deal with people's idiosyncrasies when they are not professionals and you begin to see just how unfair it is to me in the end. And I say me here, but this for any musician who has heard from someone they have a great idea for a song that could make them millions, or a painter who is told someone has a great idea for a painting and they should paint it.

Then sometimes, they ask that I give them five percent or something, as one person has said, of all I might make on that idea. Which is ludicrous, if you know anything at all about that kind of thing. When that happens I just politely decline, though sometimes they can be adamant about it, if not, offended. But that is their problem, not mine. I do after all, have enough of my own great ideas, too many for the time I have to flesh them out.

Whenever I write a note down, I also include other things to key me into remembering, especially if I don't review the notes for a long time. It also helps to review the note the next day and then in a few days, again in a week and then in a month and a year.

Research has proven that to be highly beneficial as we can lose 80% of what we learn quickly after learning it, if we don't properly review and refresh our memories.

If I was watching a movie that gave me an idea, I'll write that movie title and year down and will even include what scene, or why something clued me in to it being a good idea. The more I can include the greater the possibility that I will later be able to recall the largest possible amount of that original idea.

I've had story or book ideas that I later reviewed and used in another story or book, as a way to further enhance that story or book. It lends to what I'm working on, a kind of depth I wouldn't possibly otherwise get. You also never know when that idea later on could fit into something other than why you wrote it down, and save the day, in some way or another, possibly, some never before considered way.

So all I can suggest is, take notes. Take good notes.