I have felt pulled to write and share for years. Every time I have started to gather information and start making progress something has stalled me out. Either my life was too busy, full of too many commitments, or the inspiration would only last in snippets.
So I began my stockpiling process. When an idea would come to me I would capture it in Evernote or in my writing notebook. For 2 years I just gathered article ideas, paragraphs of thoughts that came together, and strange journal entries with practical bullet-point lists.
What I was doing was a process called “Capture” from David Allen’s GTD. I had no idea where it would lead.
[you can read more about that here: Calling Myself A Writer- Writing articles on the blog.]
I have always felt fulfilled by the process of getting my thoughts out on paper or into a text document. I still do. Capturing a flow of ideas, in the moment that I am thinking them, is one of my favorite things about writing.
Capture is also the most illusive writing task. It can be a tricky process. I often get my best ideas when I have nothing to write with (the shower) or no time to write it down (driving carpool).
Having a place to keep everything is essential to making progress.
How I capture my ideas – the process in Evernote
I created a simple and straight forward capture system for any ideas that I come across. I had to test what different ways would work for me (or not work). But now I have a system that I am happy with. I use this for grabbing ideas when they hit me and for writing them down to deal with later. I use Evernote and a system of digital notebooks to organize my work in progress.
Here is a screenshot and the details of my Evernote system.
I feel rich with ideas and ready to make progress each time I sit down to write.
I let ideas come to me as I live my very full life and I put them into my messy drafts. There are some paragraphs that I wrote over 2 years ago that have just been sitting there for the right time for me to do something with them.
There is no rush. I am not in a hurry. I have the abundance mindset and let ideas come and get stored in my files. This takes away the pressure to work on an article from start to finish. Sometimes an idea grabs me and I take it from a small list to full article in a day or two. But, more often, I capture some thoughts in a draft and then they sit for a month or more untill I look over my list and find one I want to work on.
Where my ideas come from:
I will give three examples below of where I get ideas for writing, but there are many more. I have included real examples of my work so that you can see how messy this process really is for me.🙂 I hope this is helpful to you.
Sometimes I will be living my life and words will come to me. Or maybe a list of ideas will hit me with a force so strong I have to stop what I am doing and write them out. Often those are good ideas, but sometimes I look back later and it doesn’t seem that inspired. And that is okay. I am glad that I captured it anyway.
#1 – A photo or an experience
On a walk in my neighborhood I thought about my evening rhythm of talking walks at sunset. Then I began reflecting on how I was choosing to slow down in a few very stragetic times of my day. After some reflection and taking a few beautiful Arizona sunset photos I opened Evernote and wrote out this draft.
<< see screenshot
#2 – a list written in the midst of life
I was sitting in the school room with a fresh cup of coffee and my kids around me working on our Grammar. When we switched to Geography lessons I started thinking about how much I love teaching this subject.
I looked around the room at all of our maps on the walls and the globes on the shelves. “I should write an article about geography…” I thought. And then in a rush a bullet point list poured out onto the piece of paper in front of me. Later that afternoon I put it into Evernote and it has been sitting there ever since last fall.
Sometime soon I hope to finish this article and post it.
#3 – from what I am reading, gathered ideas
When I set up my office area in 2019 (and other spaces in my home) I read stacks of books. I did a deep dive on the topic of setting up office spaces and home organization. I browsed Pinterest and online resources for ideas. Then I gathered what I had learned and applied it. This is just the way I do things. I probably comes from my husband who is the “King of Research”.😀 So, now that I have a blog I get to share that process in my writing and gathering ideas becomes research for more than just myself.
Perfection is the enemy of done.
Progress is better than a blank page or ideas forgotten.
Fighting Perfection
As you can see from my screenshots above, my capture process is messy. I just the thoughts, sentences, or bullet points out of my head. I would rather get the ideas out imperfectly than forget what I just came up with. Perfection is the enemy of done. Progress is better than a blank page or ideas forgotten.
I try to be very gentle with my ideas and messy drafts. In the idea stage anything goes. BJ Novak called this the “Blue Sky Period”. I allow anything that comes to mind to exist on the page. I let myself capture the words without feeling pressure to do anything with them.
Jonathan Rogers said in an interview that the good ideas will come back around to you. “It pops back up when I am ready to do something with it”, he explained (as he talked about his writing process). I would agree. I have lots of ideas but I eventually remember the notes that are most important to me, the ones that stick out.
For a long time I was scared to even call myself “a writer”. I have been afraid to step into this role because I don’t want to fail. I was letting perfection stop me. I was expecting final copy work in the idea phase. Now, I let the words and ideas I capture take whatever shape seems fitting. I let them be undefined for now.
When I allow myself to capture anything with potential, then I can fight off perfectionism. This does have the result of a lot of information collected, but I consider that a good thing. I feel rich with ideas when I see the numbers go up on my Evernote notebooks.
And this brings us to my next step = marinate.
Marinate
So I take notes when events happen, ideas flow into my head, or a bullet point list just needs to be written. I capture lots of information. Does that mean that everything I capture becomes something? No. And if it does it often takes a while.
I write it out, type it up, and get it captured. As much as I can. And then I walk away. I let it sit until I feel inspired to do more with it. All my ideas are in my Evernote system. They are kept safe and ready to look over anytime. I have a regular practice of looking through my draft notes.
I wait until I want to do more work on it. Forced writing does not work for me. I want the idea to tap me on the shoulder and bother me to finish writing about it. This is when topics come up again in conversation, in a book I am reading, or in my morning journaling. Full sentences will come flying at me and sometimes I can see the shape of the whole piece.
When I read over my notes and I have nothing to add then I know it needs to sit longer. Or maybe its just not the right time for that article. This is a hobby after all. I am not on anyone else’s time table. I am not on a schedule that I have to follow. I am writing for myself, at my own pace, when it works for me.
I learned this capture system idea from Mark Seaman. He is my real-life writing mentor and efficiency expert.
“…Capture, Organize, Develop, Share. This lifecycle of writing defines a standard workflow.”
“The exact shape of the publication is completely undefined at this point, but the desire is to avoid losing the insight altogether.”
Writing Workflow – Mark Seaman
My Next Steps:
- Draft Work – When an idea grabs me or captures my attention I work on adding writing to it. I take it from a small list to full article draft. This looks like a partially finished product that still needs formatting.
- Formatting – Once I have a finished draft in Evernote I have to move it to WordPress. This is when the formatting begins and I add in quote boxes, photos, headers…etc.
- Finished Article – Now I have a finished article that I can either publish right away or put into my bank to publish at a later date. I like to keep at least 5 articles in my bank to publish from twice a week.
See these articles for more on my writing process: Writing articles on the blog.
So, for today, I will work on moving things forward. One inch at a time. I will lean into my routines that help me make space for meaningful words. I will show up.
Each stage of the writing process is actually doing the work of writing. Even if it does not have a defined shape yet.
– What does the capture process look like for you?
– How do you keep track of snippets of ideas and paragraphs that creep into your head while washing the dishes?
– When do you get your best ideas?
My goal is to share hope-filled words full of practical ideas. No matter if it gets messy or if some posts need time to simmer. I am learning that the writing process is worth it. That waiting can be a good thing.
📝 Take good notes! – April
Most of the photos in this post were taken by me or Mary Edwards.
The others were Photos by Meg Boulden and others on Unsplash