Friday, February 18, 2012

A reader asked the following question.

When your brain is overflowing with ideas, how do you capture them so they don't just get lost?

I liked the query so much so, that I felt it worthy of being answered in an entire blog.

The reader was referring to when I mentioned one of my styles of writing where I “pen” stories in my head, allowing them to become infused in the lining of my brain cells, not to be lost or diluted until someday when I have the time to extract them, in whole, then write them down for others to read.

For me, it’s as if my brain is comprised of a giant old school roll-a-dex, each of the pieces I’ve mentally drafted jotted down on one of my mental roll-a-dex cards.  There they remain until I seek them out at a later date.  And…just as information stored on actual roll-a-dex cards, none of my mental stored information is diluted or lost in the process of reclaiming it.  In fact, I find the process of flipping through those cards to be quite fun.

When I was little and first came across an actual roll-a-dex, I thought it was the most amazing invention!  I’d spend tons of time, flipping the cards this way and that, delighting in how my fingers traced over the edges of each.  Then I’d stop turning the little handle and let the cards part at will, revealing whatever information was stored on the one then exposed.

It was during that first encounter with an actual roll-a-dex that I realized the direct correlation to how information is stored in my brain, especially the creative pieces I invent.  So, back to answering the reader’s question of how I capture my stored written ideas so they don’t just get lost.

For me, the process directly mimics my flipping through an actual roll-a-dex, me delighting in seeing how full of  “cards” it is and knowing that on each is contained some creative piece awaiting its birthing process.  There are times when, just as I did when I was little and first exposed to an actual roll-a-dex, I’ll allow my mind to flip through my mental roll-a-dex, delighting over the emotions and sensations each card creates as it passes by my mental fingers.  I may pause over one card, dwell on another and scan through still more.  But sooner or later, I come across the one that, at that particular point in time, serves my need to give it life.  Thus is my process of capturing my stored written pieces so they don’t just get lost.