The Idea Drawer

The Idea Drawer

Most writers will tell you to keep a notebook so you can write down your ideas. I've done that a few times. (All three have a permanent residence in the idea drawer) Yet, my inspiration to do so always dwindles. Or I lose the notebook, because a squirrel can organize better than me.

So I started writing things down everywhere.

I used note cards, back pages of notebooks, the back of homework sheets. ("Who's Scarlett?" asks my math teacher. "Uh... I'm writing a novel. She's a character." "Ah. I see... Please focus when you're doing your work.")

I started keeping them in a shoe box in my closet. I called it my idea box. But after four years, it was getting pretty beat up. It no longer had a cover, the sides were falling apart. It had survived moving houses and somehow ending up under a pile of binders, clothes, and other closet based things. So I decided my ideas needed a better home.

I cleared out a drawer in my desk and put every paper in there, looking through them as I did. I look through there a lot: when I know I had an idea in there and just can't remember the details, or when I want to work on that novel I've been building up note cards for since sixth grade. Sometimes, just because I like to do it.

The key to an idea drawer (or box) is just to get your ideas down. It's for people too chaotic to manage a notebook and too forgetful to write nothing down at all. As long as you look through it when you need it, or at the least every 1-3 months, you'll get use out of it. I promise.

Drafting Methods

First Draft Methods

Some people are inherently good at writing a first draft. They can just say, "Oh, that's a cool story!", sit down, and write it.

I'm not like that. I am too easily distracted by shiny new ideas. Or I just forget to open the document... and start something else before I remember. (Okay, yes. That is the same thing...)

To try to get out of this, I've tried many methods. So far, they all have potential, and some have even worked. But it's different with every book for me. Feel free to make your own methods and put them in the comments. Or blend together some of these.

The Tale of Two Cities method

This is the method I'm trying now. The alternate name is the Fanfiction method or the Wordpress method. (Wordpress is a thing right? I believe that's the name... I'm too reluctant to share my work virtually to get into that.) I haven't finished a novel through this method, but I have finished fanfictions, so I am hopeful.

Anyway, Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was published chapter by chapter in a magazine. (Or maybe a few chapters at a time? I'm not sure. My English teacher said this to me about two years ago now.) That's where the main title comes from.

What you will need: a story idea and at least one person who is interested in reading your story (and that you will be able to get your story to). This person can be brutally honest (I'd actually suggest this) or really nice. I'd say they have to be able to give you honest feedback, if a little sugar coated. Go for the person who will give you the hardest critique you can get without getting discouraged. The discouraging critique is for the editing phase! *note: I'm half kidding. If you're new to critique... I'm full kidding.*

Now, write your first chapter. You might have an outline, or maybe you're pantsing it. Either way, write the whole first chapter. Then, edit it. You can use any method. What I've been doing is reading it over silently and editing the big stuff, reading it out loud to myself to catch strange dialog or word choice, and finally having the computer read it to me for awkwardness. You can do this by using yWriter or by copy and pasting it into google translate. Once it's edited, send it to the person and have them read and review it. Consider fixing problems they bring up, but remember it's your choice.

Now repeat. But make sure you tell them the specific interval of time there will be between each chapter. I'm doing ten days, but yours might be one day or one month. Don't give yourself too much free time!

The NaNoWriMo method

Google NaNoWriMo. Must I elaborate? Only tip: DO THE WORD SPRINTS

What you need: Chocolate, a story idea, the ability to type quickly (optional but helpful)

The Just Go For It Method

This is how I got my first first draft written. (That looks so grammatically incorrect...) Just write on it every day. It's driven by passion, and gives ace procrastinator me too much leeway, but 13 year old me wrote 199 pages by hand using it.

What you will need: a story idea, passion!!!!!, self motivation!!!!!!!

The Clean Method

You don't want all that bloodshed in the editing phase and you don't like the Tale of Two Cities method? You're probably a planner. I'd spend some time letting my idea "marinate" as I say sometimes. But don't walk away from your idea! Check it over and over again. Add some more salt to the seasoning. (Um, does that fit with the analogy? I don't really cook...) What I'm saying is, still work on the novel. Just don't write it until you're confident in it.

For example: Betty get's an idea for a novel. It will be about a girl named Nina who loves to race cars, but then, irony much, she gets in a terrible car crash and must then get over her fear of driving again!

Now, maybe the beginning would sound the same either way. (This will be in more of an outline format, but you get it.) Nina races. She's having fun. Loves it. Later, she is trying to get home from after-party. Rain is making it hard to see. Has headache from all the noise and fuss. Because distracted, crashes car. Almost dies.

Now you reach a problem. She is scared to drive? After all these years? What makes her so frightened?

If you'd just started writing, you might just wing it and say: After, she was scared to drive. You might not give a good reason at all! If it doesn't come to you, you still have to keep writing, right?

But if you've worked it out already and don't have to worry about it, you can write the more coherent version: After, she was scared to drive. What if something happened like that and she hurt someone? She'd rammed into a pole in front of someone's house. What if there was a kid there? She had nightmares of it.

And oh! Now, you know that when you write it, you have to include the fact that she crashed into a pole in someone's yard so that this can happen.

These are just the ones I've tried. Maybe you have more? Maybe you have better ones? Leave them below!