5 Quick Ways to Store Your Writing Ideas

Are you a writer? An aspiring author? A serious scribe? Or maybe just a part-time blogger? Most writers will complain that they do not have enough time to write, or they are never near a keyboard when an idea strikes them. Chances are, you're included in this club (I know I am) and find yourself having a great writing idea at the most inopportune moment.

Writers' ideas tend to formulate from the subconscious and appear at their own unspecified time schedule. They flash in your mind while you sleep, stand in line, drive a car, or even in the bathroom. Any poet can tell you they've lost a delicious line because they didn't have any means to write it down at the grocery store.

A good writer has a responsibility to be ready to write at a moment's notice. Use these five easy ideas to be ready when your muse calls.

1. Small journal / pen or mechanical pencil

These are the easiest of all resources to acquire and carry. Any small pocket sized spiral or bound paper works, but I recommend carrying a famed Moleskine notebook, the type used for the past two centuries by famed authors and artists such as Hemingway and Van Gogh. They are light, durable, and easy to carry anywhere inside a pocket, purse or shoulder pack. Moleskines also offer a variety of paper such as lined, graphing, sketch, or ever musical stave paper.

If you are like me, you edit on the go and make corrections and changes while you write. An ever sharp mechanical pencil with replaceable eraser is just the thing for those like us who change their mind frequently. If you prefer a pen, stash a small ball point along with your Moleskine. Choose an inexpensive retractable pen rather than dealing with a loose or lost cap.

2. Digital Voice Recorder