Collecting ideas

I just finished reading a good book, Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders by Julianna Baggott.  In the acknowledgements, the author mentions some inspirations for parts of the novel, including a newspaper clipping about a plane crash that she read as a child and a book's footnote about the Maryland School for Feeble Minded Children.  Baggott collected ideas, from childhood through adulthood.  And then she connected them, along with other ideas collected and imagined along the way, into a larger story.  She made something new.  That’s what good writers do, I think, whether it's poetry, essays, short stories, novels. 

Writers are idea collectors.  We collect and observe and ponder.  Who knows where those ideas will lead?  Artists collect ideas too, inventors, scientists, business owners, researchers...anyone working on a project for work, for school, for home, for fun.  Most of us collect ideas in one way or another, intentionally or not.

basket of notebooks & folders for collecting ideas

I have a few ways that I intentionally collect ideas for writing: 

a file folder in a drawer labeled “writing ideas” - I haven’t added anything to this folder for at least a few years because the file cabinet is no longer near where I work.  Things got moved around over the years without much thought about location.

a “writing projects” folder on the desktop of my computer - Here I save a variety of documents – quickly written notes, planned stories or essays, stream of consciousness diatribes, unsent letters or rants or editorials, journal entries, memories, etc.

the “Notes” app on my smart phone – I occasionally jot down something when I'm out and about - snippets of ideas or a few lines or overheard dialogue.

notebooks and the accompanying scraps of paper shoved into these notebooks – At times, I’ve been pretty consistent about writing “morning pages” in a spiral notebook.  I sometimes jot down blog ideas in another notebook.  I also have a composition notebook that I use as a commonplace book to copy down quotes, poems, favorite passages from books, etc.  I haven’t used these notebooks with any regularity in the past several months.

my brain – This is often the least reliable idea collector, but it’s the most accessible.  Maybe I remember the ideas that I want to make note of later.  Often I don't.  But sometimes I do remember, or the idea keeps coming back to me in various ways. 
  

I enjoy reading about the processes of other idea collectors.  There are books and websites and exhibits that let us take a peek into the notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and scrapbooks of artists and writers.  It’s inspiring.  My own idea collection could use some refinement.  Although I can see myself getting too caught up in the method or vehicle for collecting ideas rather than the collecting part, so perhaps it's okay if I stick with my haphazard methods.

Which leads me back to Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders.  Julianna Baggott mentions the clipping about the plane crash that she saw as a child, and also her main character Harriet clips and saves articles in a scrap book.  Reading this motivated me to get my “writing ideas” folder out of the filing cabinet downstairs.  Inside is a short article from a parenting magazine, “A Chart to Make Getting Dressed a Breeze.”  The author created a weather chart on an erasable calendar, which also included a list of appropriate clothing for specific weather.  There were guidelines, as in - if it’s below 50 degrees, you must wear long sleeves and pants and a fleece jacket. 

I didn’t clip the article because I thought it was a good idea.  Not that it’s a“bad” idea, but it struck me as curious that someone would do this.  I knew that I would never create or compel my children to follow such a chart.  The kid who had sensory issues and needed to wear clothing that felt right.  The kid who refused to wear shorts one summer.  The kids (including the same one who refused shorts one summer) who insisted on wearing shorts once the temperature hit about 45-50 degrees in the spring.  The kids who wore sweatshirts rather than winter jackets at the outdoor ice-skating rink, because they really were warm enough.  The kid who would only wear sweatpants and never jeans, because he didn’t like the feel or fit.  Then a few years later – it was vice-versa. 

Maybe I clipped and saved the article about the weather chart because I thought I might write a humorous essay about my children's clothing choices.  Or maybe the clipping would inspire a more philosophical essay on the extent to which we do or don’t give our children choices.  Or perhaps the clipping would help describe a fictional character in a story, a mother who would create such a chart. 

I had no clear purpose for what I might do with it when I tucked that article into the folder, but I'm glad I did.  It helped me write this blog post, and it illustrated my point about collecting ideas very well.