Building Story Clips With Journals
Article by Richard Chapo
The inspiration for creative writing is one that should not be restricted. Inspiration comes in many forms and at many different times. When it does, you need to be ready to sit down and jot down your thoughts.
Half the battle with creative writing is finding those moments of inspiration. This is true whether you are writing a novel, a short story or poetry. You can set aside an hour or two to write every day and your muse may cooperate during those periods, but then again, may not. Just because inspiration comes outside of that defined period of time does not mean you shouldn’t be ready to capture the moment.
When writing creatively, you can always focus on the plot line. Turning it into fluid prose, of course, can be a challenge, but you can always stick to the specific story line. Inspiration, of course, follows no such guide. People who write experience inspiration in different ways. Some find inspiration up and down the plot line of their story. On Monday, you might have a vision of a better twist in the second chapter while on Thursday you might wake up late at night with a clear vision of how a character is going to die/fall in love/be betrayed/betray someone else.
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Capturing these moments is obviously a critical step. There are a couple of ways to go about it. One is to keep a Dictaphone so you can make oral notes of your thoughts. Just click and talk as they say. The other alternative is to keep a writing journal near you. When inspiration hits, you pop the journal open and take notes.
So, which one is best? It depends. Some people are vision oriented and some are sound oriented. Personally, I prefer to use a journal. I find the ability to read through my story notes makes it easier to develop story lines and bring in ideas that originally I thought had no relationship to my plot. It should be noted that many musicians use the same approach with lyrics. Perhaps that is why the songs make no sense!
The key point to take from this is not that you must select either a journal or a Dictaphone. The point is that you should do something to record inspirational thoughts when they come to you. Nothing is worse than having an epiphany and then forgetting it 10 minutes later. You can kind of recall what you were thinking, but it slowly slips away from you. It is akin to someone running their nails down a chalkboard. Don’t let it happen to you!
Rick Chapo writes for Nomad Adventure Journals — makers of writing journals for logging your thoughts wherever you are.
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