Grabbing Hold of the Ideas in Your Head (Beginning writer)

Grabbing Hold of the Ideas in Your Head

The way I really got into writing was by reading.  When I would read various books, they would stimulate my imagination and give me ideas.  Eventually I started writing all of these ideas down, which turned out to be very important because, the more ideas I wrote down, the more ideas came to me.  I would write them on whatever I could find and started saving them all in a folder, which I promised to use one day.  Honestly, I doubted that I would ever write anything, but just jotting down ideas was fun. 

These are most of my jotted ideas.  After finishing book one, I decided to organize them into folders.  I know that I still have other ones floating around in my various notebooks and other hiding places, and, hopefully, someday I will organize those too. 

I think that jotting down ideas is very important because it gets you thinking and imagining.  It also stimulates your own ideas, instead of trying to write something similar to another author.  (hopefully my books will be unique).  I originally thought of ideas for book 15 in my series, but decided to start at the beginning so that the reader could grow up with my world. 

I found that my best ideas came when I was riding in a car or bus (not driving), in the shower (when I wasn't thinking of other things), when I was reading (though I hope I didn't copy anyone) and when I was about to go to sleep.  The last one was the most annoying, because my mind would start racing and then I wouldn't be able to sleep for a while.  I don't think my wife enjoys this either.  I found that the best way to get a good nights sleep is to keep an i-pad close at hand so that you can write down any ideas that come up and not worry about losing them.

Organization of your ideas, so that you don't lose them, is good.   I think a lot of my old ideas were lost during the various times I moved houses.  They were probably in notebooks that i threw away.  I remember one with a dark wizard on an island attacking with green fireballs.  Can't find it now.  Any, put scribbled ideas into notebooks.  Use the note section of any smart device you have, this way they don't get lost.  Occassionally type them out on the computer and save them.  I have various folders of book ideas, all of which I hope to work with some day.