How are you, dear readers of Read.cash?
Here I am trying to write an article when for me it's still the second day of November. Although, I'm not sure I can write an article every day of the month. I want to try. And this morning, I woke up with the idea. But in the hustle and bustle of the day, I had not been able to sit down to write. And I spent most of the day thinking about it, but it was as if I had suddenly been drained of all ideas.
However, at the end of the afternoon, I had to take my husband to the Millenium shopping mall in Caracas to go to the preview of a movie. And in the car, we had a conversation that was quite inspiring for me. I think I have told you before that my husband is a filmmaker, but he is also a writer. So today in the car, I asked him what ideas he could give me to write some articles because I was lacking inspiration.
From our conversation, I didn't get any concrete ideas to write an article. Or maybe I did because I'm writing about this right now. But my husband, instead of giving me an idea, said: instead of asking me for ideas, what you have to do is to get your paper bag. I looked at him not understanding what he wanted to tell me and thinking he was pulling my leg.
But then he told me that he was referring to an anecdote that stuck with him from a book of interviews with Woody Allen that he read a long time ago. In which he said that he used to write down all the ideas that occur to him every moment and then kept them in a paper bag. Many of them as he said in the interview were written down on pieces of napkins. And when it was time to write a new story, he would take out the contents of the paper bag to go over his ideas. And he did not rule out any without having used it.
Woody Allen's career as a director and writer is very prolific. Without judging any of his films or the controversies of his private life, everything he has written is admirable.
Although, I'm not thinking of becoming a scriptwriter or a fiction writer, hehe. I need to have a bank of ideas like this. I need a paper bag.
I don't know about you, but most of my ideas come to me when I'm not writing or sitting in front of the computer. They come to me when I'm cooking or I'm doing house chores. When I'm driving, reading a book, watching a movie, or while I'm taking a bath. And the truth is that many of these ideas go to oblivion faster than they occurred to me. And that happens because I don't write them down at the moment.
So if I want to be more effective and write more, from now on I need to have my paper bag. To write down everything that comes to my mind during the day that I could write about and have them in one place. I've never written a journal in my life, but I do take notes. So I just need to carry some post-it notes or a notebook with me. Or in the worst case, a napkin or any piece of paper will work. I even can take notes on the phone or record some voice notes.
As for the book, I was referring to. If anyone is curious, it's called Conversations with Woody Allen by journalist Eric Lax, who for years was interviewing Allen and published all the interviews from over three decades compiled in a book.
And you. Do you have a bank of ideas? Or do you need a paper bag like me?
To you, my dear readers. Thank you so much!
All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.
© CoquiCoin
You can find me also at Noise.Cash ⊛ Hive ⊛ Torum ⊛ Twitter
Until next time! ;)
November 2, 2021
I need a bag, I get a lot of ideas, but when I'm in front of the pc, I get distracted doing anything but writing and the ideas vanish. I love your article.