Really Simple Writing Tip: Always Carry a Notebook and a Pen

Has it ever happened to you? On your way to the grocery store, while walking merrily and taking the sights and smell of early morning air, that an idea suddenly hit you:

What would happen if a Giant Robot suddenly started terrorizing this town on a fine day like this one? What would Mr. Woods, the baker, do? Or good old Mrs. Smith? Would I run back to my house or would I run to my girlfriend’s house?

With so many thoughts running through your head, and some of them fast slipping away, you’d want to write them down instead of letting them go down the drain. That’s where a notebook and a pen or pencil would come in handy.

Here’s the thing: inspiration can hit anywhere and most of the time, it is when you are least expecting it. How many times had it happened to you? When you are at your desk on your designated writing time, you sit on your chair and stare at a blank wall, hoping that an idea would come to you and it doesn’t? But when you are with family, jogging at the park or sometimes even at the shower, a light bulb suddenly turns on and a flashflood of ideas rush to you?

My friend, it happens to everyone, even non-writers. What separates the smart writer and the regular writer is a pencil and something to write on to. Author Billi Lim of Dare to Fail fame says, “The most brilliant of ideas can always be contained by a small stub of pencil” or something like that.

So invest on a small notebook and carry it with you wherever you go. You’ll never know when the next million-dollar idea will strike.