The Spark

Because we have to start somewhere, right? For me, step one is the Spark. The Spark is the moment an idea pops into my head. The idea consumes me until I can get to a computer or a blank piece of paper. The spark of an idea is like wildfire spreading through my mind in all of its destructive beauty. 

I'll be honest, that moment is both the best and worst thing to happen. The best because I have this awesome story developing in my head and it's new and fun and I just have to know where it's going to take me. Yet at the same time, I don't want to know. I am ready to strap in and enjoy the ride with all of its bumps and turns. I want to get to know my characters and the situation they're in. It can be seriously intoxicating.

It is also the worst because I always get these sparks when I don't have the opportunity to write them out. During my last semester of college, I had this idea for a Sci-Fi novel that took up nearly all of the free time I had those first two months. It just kept writing itself and wouldn't quit. Why is this bad, you may ask? Well, I was attending classes for three straight hours then working for six hours immediately after classes ended. I was a bad student and focused on writing as opposed to reading the assigned books and articles. Oops! 

Not only that, but I always seem to get ideas at the worst possible times. Have any of you ever been driving and had this brilliant idea with no way to put it on paper? Happens to me all the time. I lose more ideas this way than I can bear to imagine. I do wonder, however, if some award winning idea was lost on those drives...

Anyway, to counteract the aforementioned problem of losing the idea when computers are not available, I started carrying a journal around with me. I sometimes feel silly doing it, but it seriously helps! I have notebooks filled with ideas that didn't pan out, but I still have them. Maybe one day I'll go back to them. Maybe I never will. What matters is that I was able to write down my idea and was able to go with it. My notebook is always in my bag along with several pens and pencils.

So now I'm curious. How do you save your idea from falling to the wayside? Do you carry a journal, a laptop, or maybe an iPad or other tablet type device? Where do your best ideas come from? Have any panned out? Are you working through an idea right now? What happens when you get that spark?