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.