It’s happened to the best of us, right? You have a great idea, and you really should write it down. After all, you don’t want to forget it. But it’s well past midnight, and you’re in bed. In fact, you’re getting sleepy…very sleepy…your eyes are starting to — Zzzzzz. Upon awakening, you remember a whole lot of things: things you have to do today, things you have to move to another day. One thing for sure, though. You don’t remember that great idea.
How Important Is It?
Just as you might have guessed, that happened to me recently. In fact, it was a great idea for today’s blog post. But I was tired and I was stressed, and I was feeling lazy. I didn’t do that. I didn’t write it down anywhere.
Today I got up and had some new assignments from a favorite client waiting in my inbox. Woo-hoo! Ready to make some more dough! But…that blog post. I had to stop and think: what was I going to write about? I had to ask myself, “How important is it? Is it worth getting upset?” Nah. Still…I thought it would come to me if I sat with it.
Forget Me Not
And you guessed it. No such luck. When I took a break from my client’s project, I switched over to create-today’s-blog-post mode. I figured I would just sit and meditate on it, and it would come to me. It didn’t. Unlike the Forget-Me-Not, I did forget him…or her. I thought about all the other things I’ve been speaking and writing about lately. I thought about book blog tours, video marketing, email newsletters. Nope, it wasn’t that. Or that. Or that.
So here is a blog post for the day that’s like a Seinfeld episode – a post about nothing. Folks, I got nothing. Except for the always timely admonition: “Writers, write it down!”
Yes! this has happened to me a million times. … I’m so glad it does happen to someone else. haha
I tell my daughter this all the time and she keeps a pen and journal as I do, right there on our nightstand. And, you get those ideas, always, as you described: when you’re relaxing and don’t want to bother to write it down. haha
Great share Mike.
Thanks, Laurie. Even to this day, if I have ideas right before bed, I’ll roll out with a groan and write them down. They’re never as great as I think they are, but at least I have them!
Great advice Mike, simple and short – “Writers, write it down!”
I too, have fallen prey to my over confidence in my capabilities of remembering, i.e my memory. Over the past 50 odd years, I learned that a very common cause of forgetting is interference, which occurs when some memories compete with other memories or failing to store the information in memory in the first place.
As I ponder on what makes me who I am, it is easy to think that my memories (or my perception of its power) are the answer, but apart from the physical traces of the passing of time on my body, my recollections are perhaps the only thing that links the “me” sitting here today to the many “me’s” of my every previous days of my existence. Without them, my relationships to anything or person would mean nothing, not to mention my knowledge, tastes, and my many adventures. It might be no exaggeration to say that my memories are the essence of me.
Yes, it is best to ‘Write it down’
Thanks for stopping by, Jonathan! Interesting concept, that interference.
I got up out of bed and wrote for about 15-20 minutes a couple weeks back, because I KNEW I would forget my ideas if I didn’t. The results will make it into a novel. Definitely worth it!
Thanks for stopping by, Jonathan! Interesting concept, that interference.
I got up out of bed and wrote for about 15-20 minutes a couple weeks back, because I KNEW I would forget my ideas if I didn’t. The results will make it into a novel. Definitely worth it!
Great advice. I have lost stories because I didn’t write the idea down.
Thanks, Larry. Me too!