It is a new writer’s reality – it’s every writer’s reality – that writing inspiration comes upon us at the most inconvenient times.
Just as we’re falling asleep. Shopping at the supermarket. Dreaming in the dead of night. I remember author Jodi Picoult saying she used to write up her arms while she was driving.
The point is – and writers learn this the hard way – if we don’t capture the inspiration the moment it strikes, we will lose it. It will not come again as it came in that moment.
For this reason I sleep with a big notebook on the pillow beside me, open to a blank page with a pen beside it. If a writing morsel comes in the night, I scribble it in the dark, keeping my eyes closed so I can slide back into sleep.
There’s a blank page in my car, awaiting the same scribbles. There’s always a notebook and pen in my bag and in my jacket pockets and … And consequently I end up with notes everywhere. Scraps of paper, everywhere.
I urge writers to transcribe their notes regularly and often. And do I take my own advice? No I do not. Always I wind up with piles of paper notes awaiting their moment and, when the moment comes, half the time I can’t remember what their point was.
Some years ago I was so over my pile of papers I rented an ironstone cabin in Lightning Ridge, from which I could see clear across the outback, every sunrise, every sunset, and spent an entire monthwith those galahs above transcribing my notes.
As each note was transcribed it got chucked into the middle of the loungeroom floor. This photo is half the final paper mountain.
Stephanie Dale is an award-winning journalist, author, researcher and founder of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute. In 2014 she launched The Write Road, a wellbeing-through-writing initiative for rural and remote Australians. She is passionate about pilgrimage, and in 2017 initiated Walk&Write holiday writing adventures.