"Go away, stupid plot bunny, this is a BAD TIME." "Nope."

[author_by_night]

You’re at work, doing something fairly low key, depending on your job. It might be putting material into folders, it might be waiting to take your next order, or you might be a student, and you’re listening to a lecture.

Suddenly, a plot bunny nibbles on the carrot that is your muse.

You know you’re supposed to be doing work, and you don’t feel like getting caught. You also know that in the past, when you’ve waited on ideas for longer than five minutes, they’ve vanished into thin air.

 

Writers have a very unique problem, because we tend to have two worlds: the world around us and the world inside our heads.

 

A non-writer cannot understand it. When I tried to explain the predicament to my mother, she simply stared at me and said, “isn’t it like wanting to daydream about the baseball game?”

 

If only, if only.

 

So my question is, how are we, as writers, to deal in a world that does not allow for time to just stop and write? How have writers before us dealt?

 

 One thing I’ve tried doing is making notes. Nothing that requires wasting anyone elses’s time, and nothing that will get me into trouble – just quick, simple notes.

 

Problem? Well, for instance, let’s say this happens while I’m in class, and I go to take quick notes. If I do so, I usually end up with more notes on my story than on the lecture. Whoops! And taking notes at work – unless you have your own office that nobody else ever uses for anything, and a place to put the notes with faith nobody will ever see them? That doesn’t work either.

 

Another thing I’ve tried is letting the thoughts flow while I work. However, this tends to be even worse than taking notes, because next thing I know ten minutes have passed and I’m staring at the same line on the same piece of paper. Yeah.

 

It’s also hard in social situations. Let's say you decide to cope by telling the person you are with:

 

You: Oh, I JUST got a great story idea!

 

Friend: Huh, cool, what about?

 

You: Well, it takes place in Italy–

 

Friend: Oh, that reminds me, ever seen the movie Under the Tuscan Sun?

 

You: No. So anyway, this girl, Barb –

 

Friend: And I forgot to tell you! Derek and I are looking for a new car!

 

You: Oh. Great. *Sigh*

 

You also can’t very well write at random with friends. Unless, of course, they are writer friends. (In which case they will also let you dish your ideas, although it’s really never a good idea to monopolize the conversation. Mention it to a small extent – just remember that your friends are not human notepads. Granted, I forget this all the time… right, flisters?)

 

So, how do we compromise?

 

 

 

 

Comments

[asphodel-ale.livejournal.com]

I keep a clipboard with scratch paper on it at work, and when I'm waiting for people to come up and be served, I jot down a few sentences. (There isn't enough time between people to do anything else anyway.)

I also write during breaks and sometimes at lunch. Then I take home what I've written at the end of the day/week.

I just have to remember to write obliquely enough so that whatever comes out of my pen is work-safe, but not so much so that I forget what I actually wanted to say once I get it on the old computer. It's an interesting balancing act. *grins*

I also keep a composition book in my purse and write in it whenever I'm waiting for my order at a restaurant, or whenever I have more than a couple of minutes wait. The cover is hard enough to make a decent writing surface by itself, which makes it better to my mind than a plain notebook.

[nicolen.livejournal.com]

Here via one of the newsletters.

I do the same thing with keeping a notebook in my bag and writing during my breaks.

I'm also lucky - or unlucky - enough to spend the whole of my working hours chained to the computer and if random plot bunnies strike, I'll quickly email all the info home so it's there and waiting for me...