My Collection of Notes and Ideas

Do you ever write notes to yourself? I find myself constantly writing down my thoughts, ideas, whims, and odd observations; often times on bits of scrap paper or whatever is on hand. In fact, this is going to sound a little crazy, but I have a few boxes full of these collected notes. I don't know what I'm going to do with them - maybe some day go through, archive the good ideas and then throw them away. I just can't make myself toss out what is possibly a great idea. I guess you could say I am an idea pack-rat.

I knew a man once who had his entire double garage full of junk that he had collected. Heating and air ductwork material, odd pieces of metal, wire, tools, books, shelves, wood, anything you can imagine almost. I mean the entire double garage full, with stuff stacked like 5 or 6 ft. high and junk in the backyard too. So at least I am not an actual junk pack rat, just one that writes a lot of notes and keeps them! That's why I like the computer, it can store all of my writings in nicely typed, spell-checked, easily organized, searchable format. You know what I need, is a portable voice recorder that could just plug into the computer and automatically type up my words.

"A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return." - Francis Bacon

Even on the computer though when I write down my thoughts it's not really a journal, it is still more of ideas, prose, poetry, and weird wanderings of the mind. The most journal-like that I get is writing down my dreams, the good ones that I can remember anyway. Only very seldom do I write down or refer to an event that happened or people I that I saw. I guess I am more concerned with remembering why something was important, what ideas I can pull from it, how it made me feel, or my reaction.

Maybe it is just that I am lazy and don't want to get tied down to chit-chatty details or something. My notes are like an emotional snapshot of the mind; well an emotional and analytical snapshot. I am always making these lists, in order to edit down my ideas and organize my current creative thoughts. I start out with the intention of keeping things separate but my writing usually degrades into that emotional/analytical potpourri. Which no one but my own crazy mind would actually understand if reading it, and sometimes when I come back to my notes I don't even know what I was talking about.

Writing this blog has helped me to actually take time to organize, punctuate, and put good form to my thoughts. If you go back and read the first posts (if you're super bored or something) and read the progression of my writing, it definitely has improved. Writing every day is just as important as sketching or painting everyday I have learned. And if you're not actually physically doing it, at least thinking about it, that is work too.

My notes are like my sketchbooks, informal works that I try to go back to and then turn the good entries into paintings. Except with the notes; I go back and write at least a few paragraphs on the idea I wanted to remember or research what I was thinking about. So anyways, take Francis Bacon's advice and don't forget to write down that idea that just hits you, it truly might not come back.