Anne Lamott, author of the fabulous book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (which I am currently consuming), has a chapter devoted to an idea that surpasses brilliant. One of the phenomenon’s that happens for writers that is both amazingly wonderful and desperately annoying is that excellent ideas for a piece you are working on inevitably come to you when you are away from you primary writing tools (like the laptop I am writing this on right now). The solution she presents is so simple its painful. Index cards. They’re tough, lightweight, and cheap. Just take one, fold it in half, and stick it in your back pocket. That plus a pen equals the end of the loss of those little flashes of inspiration. At a stoplight last night I managed to scribble down the notes for a good scene for the novel I am working on. When I got home I slipped it into my notebook for said novel and grabbed a fresh card for my pocket. That is simply brilliant.

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