Comments on: Thursday’s Target-A Rainbow of Sticky Notes

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:16:31 +0000

Yay for teamwork! You may need to get one of those tiny digital recorders, in case the inspiration comes when she’s not in the car.

By: Stephen Pohl

Stephen Pohl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:13:46 +0000

For some unknown reason, when I am working on or thinking about a non fiction article, I have on several ocassions gotten a burst of ideas while in the car driving to some family event with my twenty something year old daughter. I usually have a small flip spiral note book with me We may be talking about something completely nrelated when an idea or phrase or question comes to be. I give her the notebook and a pen and ask her to write down what I dictate, which is usally brief. She has gotten used to these strange interruptions while riding with me. I tell her that her presence is inspirational.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:27:24 +0000

I started that book, Sherrie, but must not have read to the end. Those are great ideas.

& Good luck with your lightbulbs, too!

By: Sherrie Petersen

Sherrie Petersen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:12:36 +0000

One of my favorite writing books is Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. She has two great exercises in the book for when you’re stumped.

First, you have to write down 12 possibilities. You can’t stop at five or at nine, even if you go back and use one of those. It doesn’t matter if some are completely ridiculous, you write them down.

The other thing she’ll do when she’s stuck is write down her question on a sticky note (handy for so many things, are they not?) and leave it on her screen or her desk so it’s always in her face, on her mind. It helps her come up with a solution.

I’ve used both techniques with success. Good luck screwing in the lightbulb

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:51:59 +0000

Amy, I try this, but something happens to my brain when I walk. If I don’t have company, it’s like a vacuum just sucks any thoughts away. Driving works for me, but then–you know–I have to worry about all those silly people on the road with me.

By: Amy G.

Amy G. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:35:14 +0000

That sounds like a neat exercise, Becky.

For me, what works best is to stew about things for a while and maybe try some brainstorming technique, and then walk away. And I do mean walk. Somehow being in motion helps me see connections I hadn’t seen before. And usually those hold up in practice, where as the stuff I diagram on paper isn’t always so trustworthy.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:04:19 +0000

Beautiful! Did it just come to you, or were you in active thinking mode?

By: beth

beth — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:26:33 +0000

OMG–I *just* had a lightbulb moment! There was a story of mine that was going no where, and I couldn’t figure out why…until I realized that what the character wants in the beginning of the story didn’t tie with how she solved the problem in the end. Now I’m contemplating a complete rewrite.

For me, I tend to be very internal in thinking through problems. I just mull and mull over them, and eventually I figure it out.