Do you keep an idea journal?
I have two. One is a pretty little journal someone gave me several years ago. Unfortunately, I misplace it constantly. So I’ve taken to using the notes section in my daily planner.
(Yes, I use an old-fashioned printed planner. Don’t judge.)
My problem with idea journals is that I rarely remember what I had in mind when I first wrote the ideas down. Which is what happened when I reviewed my entries recently, hoping for inspiration.
Instead, I’m offering my ideas to you. Maybe you can work them into something.
You’re welcome.
1. Pet Peeves and Dearest Delights
I think I was considering turning this into a regular feature, which upon reflection just sounds like a gripe fest better suited for Facebook.
In any case, I liked the sentence I scribbled underneath:
I don’t have many pet peeves, but the ones I do have are taken out for long walks and fed regularly.
Downright tweetable, don’t you think?
2. When the Kitchen Floor Crunches and Mom Isn’t Around, Does it Make a Sound?
From the quality of my penmanship, my guess is this was written very late one night.
I can see it now: I get up for a glass of water, walk into the kitchen and *crunchcrunchycrunch* — some late-night snacker spilled cereal on the floor and didn’t bother sweeping it up.
Forcing me to wonder: am I the only one who hears it? Really?!
Really?!!
3. Confessions of the GIF-Intolerant Blogger
I like the title, but not sure what I had in mind for content. I suppose I was going to gripe about GIFs, but how long is that good for?
And if I’m going to write about GIFs, I’d have to include some as examples, which is a problem because I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to them. The second I land on a blog and there’s a constantly moving graphic, over and over…
I mean, OMG! At least give me an option for stopping the movement, okay?! That constant herky-jerky motion as I’m trying to read? I hate that!
…
Wow. My idea journal is really bitchy. Oh wait, this one’s not so bad:
4. The 12 Ways Cooking is Like Writing
I actually have 12 statements following this title. Sure, they’re boring as hell. Stuff like: You learn from others; The more you do it, the better you get; blah, blah, blah.
I remember cooking while I was writing them down, so one assumes I had a meal in progress that related to it. Meaning I probably had an actual recipe too.
Gosh, wouldn’t that be swell?
You know what else would be great? If I took pictures of the meal in progress!
*takes out phone*
*scroll, scroll, scroll*
Dammit!
Ah. Now I remember. Totally forgot to take pictures and the post was too boring to care. But hey, feel free to steal the idea if you see something there I don’t.
5: The Lonely Biblical Action Figure
There was one more item of note in my idea journal. It was a page printed from a website selling Biblical Action Figures:
Samson Action Figure
Share the story of Samson, his God-given strength, his journey of faith, and reconciliation with God with young ones, as found in the Book of Judges. Includes removable hair.
Underneath this, I had scribbled in red ink:
WHAT ABOUT DELILAH?!
Honestly. If you’re going to include “removable hair,” shouldn’t you include the bad-ass chick who removed it?
Hmm. Maybe that one was worth a blog post after all.
Ah well. Such is life.
Anyway, this represents the best of my idea journal so far. If you want, go ahead and steal them.
I wish you well.
Feeding on Folly 
No judgement on traditional planner. . . I have been using a Franklin Planner since 1992 and while I tried the electronic version, I like the paper version much better. Twenty five year’s worth of binder sleeves does take up a good bit of space though.
I’m sure it does! Might make an interesting read too.
I do go back from time to time
you should totally write a blog post about the “Samson Action Figure.” Oh yes, please.
I use to keep an idea file on my computer, but most of the time I’d go back, read it and have no idea what I was thinking of when I wrote it.
I’ll give Samson some thought. Maybe if I find a Delilah for him, he won’t be so lonely.
Why is it our late night inspiration never holds up to the light of day? Man, I’ve lost more great American novels that way. 😏
My planner is napkins with notes written all over them. And add to that when my Parkinson’s hand is really shaking… and that’s how some of my best posts have come about. Honest! lol!
I don’t think you’re a real writer unless you’ve scribbled ideas on napkins and torn bits of paper. And shaky writing gives it panache! 😉
I’ve tried to do journals, but just don’t keep up with them. Great post!
Thanks Diane!
I’m not super regular with my journal entries, but I’ve gotten better. And I admit, they can be kind of fun to read.
I need to make more of an effort, even if just to write down story ideas!
Inspiration is fleeting, but an idea journal works like a dreamcatcher. And just like dreams, some of them won’t make any sense while others might give way to something incredible 😉 A thoroughly worthwhile exercise!
Yes, I get winners from time to time, and it does make for enjoyable reading.
Love this post, CJ! Dearest Delights could be a really fun one. It sounds like something I’d do. Would love to read one about Delilah too. I keep my random blog post ideas in “the hopper” which is in my draft folder. But sometimes I’m too lazy for that and find myself scribbling down stuff on random pieces of paper or post it notes. And yes, many a time I look at these later and think WTF?
Thanks Rhonda!
Gosh, I totally forgot about the ideas in my draft folder. Just took a peek and I found one from a year ago about an anthill in the backyard. No clue where I was going with that. WTF?!
We likely have the same hard copy organizer – I too use the journal section for ideas. Typically (since I can’t speech-to-text them in public) I’m interrupted before completing the thought and then I forget where I was going with them… Still, I love your ideas. I simply have too much guilt already to borrow or steal them = >
Hard copy planners are more elegant, or at least that’s what I tell myself.
Your mention of the phone made me remember my notes app. Turns out I had some more ideas there! Augh!
Oh, I use the notes app often. As a sort of poor man’s stenographer, speech-to-text makes many notes quite entertaining.
I use 3×5 index cards to scribble ideas and keep track of things I’m working on or should be working on. (I buy the packs that have multiple colors, not for any coding purposes but just because I like the variety.) I just plucked a random one out of the current stack:
” Post on Comments
(Barb on Chainsaw)
(Phil on Sucking Down Margs)
(Lindy on Doctor)
Whoberry! ”
It entertained me to see that exclamation point with the final entry. I know what a Whoberry is (the name of a blogger’s cat) but I don’t know what I intended to do with Whoberry. Apparently it was urgent, but not enough to actually do it… 😉
P.S. I’d have to go with the voting bloc that is pushing for a Samson (and Delilah!) story…
I recently purchased a little notebook for my purse, about the size of 3×5 cards, the company’s name is Yoobi. Which sounds like a sibling to Whoberry. So there you go.
I am, at this moment, working on a Samson and Delilah post for next week. I am very excited about it. Stay tuned. 😀
Don’t like physically writing or typing (yes, I’m lazy and my fingers can’t keep up with my brain and that frustrates me when I have to go back and correct all the typos) ANYWHO, it seems that I always think of things driving to work, and of course I can’t stop and record them because I’m on my way to work and I don’t want to be late, so I try to memorise things, but I don’t and then they are gone like the wind when I actually have time to write them down, and YES, I didn’t take anybreaths in between any of these words, nor use punctuation. Just how I feel tonight 🙂
I vote for Delilah – she was way more interesting that Samson, and just the sound of her name ….Dee lie lah is so musical.
I admit, I considered the name Delilah for our daughter. It’s such a beautiful name. But when I mentioned it, my husband started singing the Tom Jones song: My, my, my… Delilah! Why, why, why… Delilah! — and I knew that would happen every time.
So, yeah. We didn’t name her Delilah. 🙂
Yes, that is the only downfall to that name – you could never escape.
You’d be a fun person to hang with, CJ!
Aw, well shucks, Mitch! Thank you!
I admittedly do like Gifs from time to time, but sometimes they are used too much as a crutch when it comes to bloggers. In other words, I get why you’re not a fan. Also, I’m trying to catch up on your entries as well as others. I got distracted with life and work lately and let the blog life suffer for it! I’m trying to read a post a day from you and other bloggers I follow to catch up. Thanks for supporting my blog as well!
That recent follow you got from me was because I finally found your “follow by email” button (for some reason it didn’t show on my iPad). I was “following” you, but only in the sense you appeared in my reader which I rarely go to because SOME bloggers post or repost 5000 times a day. (In my naive blogger days, I didn’t know how to ferret them out and now I’m too blame nice to unfollow them.) Anyway, my point is, I was actually worried you weren’t blogging anymore, so I’m glad I found your button. 😉
Thanks for taking the time to catch up!
As for Gifs, my kids make fun of me whenever I complain about them. Sigh.
I understand what you mean about being overloaded with notifications from bloggers who blog multiple times a day. It’s too intense for me!
Yeah, I’m still here. My current job encourages overtime and I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Despite that, my goal is to write an entry once a week. So hopefully I can keep that up.