Idea!, by Terry Freedman
The great thing about technology as far as writing is concerned is that we need never forget a brilliant idea. I sometimes think to myself how much I admire writers (or, indeed, anyone) in centuries past for writing anything at all. I mean, if you're travelling on foot or by horse and carriage in the 18th century and you have a great idea for a story, how do you jot it down? Did Samuel Pepys, for example, carry a quill and an inkwell around with him?
I suppose that most of the time such issues never affected most people. Only a small elite was able to read, and en even smaller elite able to get their work published. But what of the present?
One of the words people use to describe me is 'prolific'. If that's the case, how do I manage to write so much? I think there are three factors.
Firstly, I have lots of ideas for articles. In this respect I don't think I am any different to anyone else.
Secondly, I act on those ideas. I think that probably in this respect I am different from a lot a people. I've met plenty of wannabe writers who bemoan the fact that they have never had anything published, forgetting the inconvenient fact that in order to do so you actually have to write something. Maslow distinguished between primary and secondary creativity. The former is having the ideas and creativity in the first place. The latter is being prepared to go through the agonising process of writing something, tearing it up, and starting again. This, for example, is my second attempt to write an article connecting writing with technology. I spent nearly an hour on the first one before deciding it was a lost cause.
Perhaps this is what Oscar Wilde meant when he said:
“This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again.”
The late Gerald Haigh, an education technology journalist, made the following comment on a previous version of my post entitled The Right Writing Style. He said:
“Time and again, when I write an article, I go back and cut the whole of the first para. That’s because I’ve sort of used it to get up speed, and it ends up being quite redundant. The general point is that ruthlessness with the virtual scissors is essential for all writers. “Kill your babies” is oft-used saying — i.e. don’t be afraid to cut favourite lines. You may be the only one who thinks they’re any good.”
Thirdly, how do I ensure that I remember the ideas I have? In my time I have used several kinds of technology to help me. This is a list of what I tend to use these days:
A notebook and pen. In my opinion you can't beat it for speed, reliability and robustness. The great thing these days is that with apps like Google Lens it’s dead easy and quick to convert your handwritten notes into editable text.
A cell phone. I use a notes app called ColorNote to jot down some points. I’ve tried other apps too, but I like ColorNote because it’s easy for creating lists, which you can then email to yourself.
An additional way I use my phone is to jot down ideas for articles. I use an applet I created in IFTTT (If This, Then That). I tap the applet, jot down my idea, or dictate it, and then that idea gets inserted into a spreadsheet with a date and time stamp. The app I use is this one: Add writing ideas to a spreadsheet. I adapted it from someone else’s app, but that was so long ago I’ve forgotten the person’s name, for which I am sorry.
I'm pretty good at creating visual prompts for myself. I always carry a camera around with me, or there is always my cell phone. A well-chosen photo is often all I need to remind me of what my earth-shattering idea was.
I used to have a pocket computer called a Psion Organiser which I always carried around with me. It had a qwerty keyboard and I managed to get quite fast on it. I once even composed an entire issue of my erstwhile newsletter, Computers in Classrooms, on it. Sadly, the ravages of time have rendered the screen virtually unreadable to me now, but I cannot bring myself to get rid of this wonderful little device.
Unlike Samuel Pepys, we don't have any excuse for forgetting ideas for articles if you're not within reach of a quill: think tech, and you can't go wrong!
A slightly different version of this article has been published on my education technology blog.
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