The practice of noting down random ideas

A writer's mind generates ideas and observations in the most unexpected, sudden ways. Anne Lamott describes this mindset as "seeing everything as material":

One of the things that happens when you give yourself permission to start writing is that you start thinking like a writer. You start seeing everything as material. Sometimes you’ll sit down or go walking and your thoughts will be on one aspect of your work, or one idea you have for a small scene, or a general portrait of one of the characters you are working with, or you’ll just be completely blocked and hopeless and wondering why you shouldn’t just go into the kitchen and have a nice glass of warm gin straight out of the cat dish. And then, unbidden, seemingly out of nowhere, a thought or image arrives.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird (Canons) (p. 138). Canongate Books. Kindle Edition.

What should we do with these uncalled, sudden muses? Note them down. Taking notes is a great tool to prepare for future writing sprints, ensuring we always have some starters to unbind our creative frictions.

How should I take notes?

Index cards or a notebook

This is Lamott's suggestion from the book. It's an enticing idea. After reading this part, I added several index cards and pens to my Amazon basket. Just before hitting the submit, I decided to get a hold of myself and stick to my already abundant tools.

However, this method might work for you if you have a healthy and organized relationship with pen and paper. Lamott suggests that index cards should be available everywhere. I was thinking about planting a stack in the kitchen, living room, dining table, office, and bedroom. And one around the outdoor bags and stuff to grab when leaving the house. I even thought about buying one of those water-proof shower stickies.

If you're going for this method but find the index cards inconvenient, a small, handy notebook would do the trick, too. A pen tucked into the notebook's cover or spiral would make the whole ordeal much more portable.

One downside of the method would be organizing and digitizing all these notes to use later. That was an important reason for me not to opt for this method.

Phone

"Bird by Bird" was published many years ago. Nowadays, the most convenient option is to use our smartphones. If someone is not the "always having the phone around" type, they will naturally default to pen and paper. Our phone will be at an "unlock and type" distance for the rest of us.

I suggest using a synced app you've already decided to use for note-taking with a phone. If you haven't already, choosing an app beforehand will help you avoid unwanted distractions when you unlock your phone to jot down your thoughts. A synced app will help you access the notes while exploring those ideas on your laptop or tablet. You can use any note-taking app or even a private tab in a messenger app if it's more convenient. Remember to set an accessible shortcut or widget for the app to access it quickly. I use Obsidian, which has a premium plan for syncing between devices.

What to take notes about?

Anything. New story ideas are the obvious ones. I had an idea for a story on a road trip when a song went on repeat. I noted everything that came to my mind about that story in my messenger app. I remember a Donna Tartt interview where she talked about an advantage of working at the library: noticing "characters" left and right. You can note down interesting people to refer to later, such as their clothing, appearance, how they talk, their names, and so on. It's like street photography but with words. I was taking a writing course a while back. One of the first exercises was to list names, characteristics, etc. You can start such lists as a writing exercise. Your future self will thank you for all these beautiful ideas.

How to use the notes?

You can regularly return to your notes and move them to respective, longer notes for each story or article. This depends on your workflow. You may have a draft folder and can draft some of these ideas immediately. Or you can put them in a draft backlog to return to them when you want to start something new. You may have a character bank and can save new names, customs, and characteristics in your vault and tag them. You don't have to categorize everything you notice, though. Some ideas need to be incubated; just put them somewhere accessible and searchable in your digital world if you have one. Otherwise, trust the noting process and let your unconscious mind pick up on an old note right when needed. And last but not least, read the notes sometimes. You might feel excited about a raw idea or suddenly make new connections between unrelated notes. Over time, your notes will become an invaluable treasure in your creative process.