Letters to Kel: ARE YOU READY?

ALWAYS be ready when inspiration strikes.

Mostly because it strikes when you are least able to drop everything and take notes.

Big bad confession time: I get most of my great ideas ... in CHURCH! Yeah, I sit there in my adult Bible fellowship group, industriously taking notes ... but not on my teacher's lesson. (Sorry, George!)

I don't know why it happens, but it just does. For instance, I got my idea for today's blog just before class started. If I could figure out how to turn on the spigot, and control it, I would be in great shape. I wouldn't sit there sometimes staring at my computer screen, knowing I want to get to a certain place in the story outline, but not certain exactly what the next step is to get there.

So, you have to be ready to write down those ideas when they strike. I keep a notebook in my purse. I have a notepad sitting on my desk. My iPad sits on the table next to my bed -- very convenient for ideas that strike in the middle of the night, because I don't have to turn a light on, and it's a whole heck of a lot more legible than the notes I used to try to write in the dark.

Use what works best for you. Notepad, iPad, voice recorder, whatever.

Don't depend on yourself to remember when you finally get a chance to write down that flash of inspiration that came when you happened to overhear a bit of conversation that struck a memory or filled in that gap in the story you're working on, or you see a picture that reminds you of your character, and you realize that your heroine has a cousin who is just perfect to say that silly line that gets things moving. You know what I mean, that "Ah ha!" moment when you feel like you're "remembering" something, but you're really just filling in the blank spots.

Yeah, you get great ideas when you're driving somewhere, or doing the laundry or cleaning the bathroom or working out or changing the baby's diapers or cooking dinner ... and you just can't drop everything to write down the idea. Well, DROP IT as soon as you can. Don't tell yourself you'll remember an hour from now, or five hours from now. Your head gets too jammed full during the day and things get mixed up, and you "download" in your sleep all the things you crammed into your head during the day -- that's where dreams come from, or at least that's the theory. Let me ask you: How many times did you wake up with this great dream so vivid in your head, but by the time you got up and found some paper to write it down ... it faded away?

BE READY. Don't leave anything to chance. When inspiration sneaks up on you and whispers in your ear ... be ready to snare it before it runs away!