Day 260 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

WHY IDEA FILES ARE LIKE LEFTOVERS

AND

DAMN THE ENTIRE COMPUTER INDUSTRY SOMETIMES!!!

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First of all, my apologies for the lateness of this post. The Editor-in-Wife and I were solving a couple of really frustrating computer glitches. One was hardware related, my speakers failed. The other, an insistence on the part of Facebook Messenger in wanting to run automatically at start-up. There are days when I really think we should go back to pressing our messages into wet clay tablets, air drying them, and trusting in couriers to not get lost while delivering them. But enough of that.

 

So how about some leftovers? Do you keep idea files? Notebooks, file folders on the computer, or audio recordings on a phone or digital recorder? Or do you just dive right into an idea and pursue it until it either results in fruition or dies on the vine?

 

I'm a believer in the first method. I keep notebooks and computer files in which I record those flashes of seeming brilliance. Then I try to tuck them away and move on. Why not leap in with both feet? After all, I could just abandon anything that doesn't seem to be worthwhile and switch to another project, right?

 

I don't know about you, but, as a writer with a day job and several other commitments, I haven't got that kind of time to waste. I'm finding it more beneficial as time passes to let ideas sit in warm dark places and see which ones rise like well-leavened bread. These are the ones I return to and move to another file of prospective stories, usually accompanied by some rudimentary story development.

 

Am I ready to pop that sucker into the brick oven of my creative process? No. I put them away again and come back for another look later. This is like rediscovering that homemade spaghetti sauce, beef stew, or really good chili from a half a week ago. The flavors and spices that compose the idea have had a time to blend and enrich each other, bringing out the subtleties I wasn't aware of at first taste.

 

Like some of the better dinners I've produced, this is one of the ways I produce better poetry, fiction, and essays. Not by devouring everything in sight at first sitting, but by returning again and again to partake in the maturing of the experience. It's like making love. The first time around is all slobbering and grinding passion. Later, as you learn to discover your partner's wants, needs, and sensual imagination, the meal becomes a feast that leaves those who sit down to it too satiated to leave.

 

Just a helpful hint from your Uncle Dane.

 

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Meanwhile...live, love, write, and manja!

 

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Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.