Making notes while on the move

[redzinger]

So, you're out food shopping in town and inspiration hits.

Or you overhear a great line from a random stranger in a bar.

Not having your preferred writing tools (PC, laptop, etc) available, how do you remember/write down those nuggets?

I used to use pen & paper when I carried a handbag. Nowadays, I'm more minimal so was thinking of installing an app on my phone. I've tried a couple in the past though and not continued to use them. I've even used the text facility, then forgotten the notes were there (alcohol, unsurprisingly, was involved) until months later.

Is there anything that you'd recommend which works for you?

 

[Ardent1]

You likely have a voice recorder app on your phone already. Just don't use it while driving. They'll still bust you for using your phone while driving.

 

[sr71plt]

These days I spend most of my time within 100 feet of my home office and computers. If I'm out, I just have to try to remember snatches of it and my subconscious manages to hang on to most of the rest.

I can weave a pretty intricate erotic story in my mind and retain most of it in the space of a sermon in church.

 

[TxRad]

I carry a small digital voice recorder. One click, talk, and the notes are there. Ya get some funny looks on occasions though.

 

[Hypoxia]

I carry a small digital voice recorder. One click, talk, and the notes are there. Ya get some funny looks on occasions though.

Ditto that. I started using a Sony reporter's cassette recorder, roughly the size of a fat cig pack, about 20 years ago, specifically for recording brainbombs and evesdropping while on a cross-continent drive. I wore out two of those before I switched to a smaller Olympus microcassette unit, then a couple of MP3 players that doubled as digital voice recorders, and now an Olympus audio recorder not much bigger than a fat pen. Walking or biking or riding or biking, my one-handed idea machine is there for songs, stories, essays, letters, shopping/death lists, etc. I tried using voice recognition software but I end up transcribing everything anyway.

Of course, if I've got to be quiet, there's always pencil and notepad.

 

[CharleneBarr]

Many of my ideas come just before falling asleep at night - I guess that's when your brain starts to go off at all kinds of tangents, and I've thought, 'wow, that's marvelous' - but then the option is either to get out of bed and type it in or say to myself, 'tomorrow...zzzzzzz' and then buggered if I can think what the idea was next morning.
So any ideas are welcome?

 

[shutterpsb]

I keep telling myself to buy a voice recorder, but for the time being I just rely on my very unreliable memory.

 

[PennLady]

If you have a cell phone, a lot of them have some kind of note or memo function, under the tool menu, even if you don't have a smart phone.

 

[RejectReality]

I write things down at work sometimes. There's always paper hanging around, and a pen in my pocket. My handwriting is hard to read anyway, ( Left handed, and teachers tried until the 4th grade to make me write right handed, so I lost all those crucial years of developing penmanship. I'm also impatient and write at Doctor speed ) but if there's something I don't want anyone else to see over my shoulder, I write it out in a pictographic code I came up with eons ago.

Most of the time when an idea hits me there, I end up mulling it over all day long. I usually don't lose anything before getting home to my normal tools.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

These days I spend most of my time within 100 feet of my home office and computers. If I'm out, I just have to try to remember the advice my doctor gave me, take the medicaments and my subconscious manages to hang on to most of the rest.

I can weave a pretty intricate erotic story in my mind and retain most of it in the space of a sermon in church.

Religion clearly isn't your bag.

 

[sr71plt]

Many of my ideas come just before falling asleep at night - I guess that's when your brain starts to go off at all kinds of tangents, and I've thought, 'wow, that's marvelous' - but then the option is either to get out of bed and type it in or say to myself, 'tomorrow...zzzzzzz' and then buggered if I can think what the idea was next morning.
So any ideas are welcome?

More often than not, I get up and type it in. Ideas like that usually are on stories I'm currently writing or reviewing. Most of my new ideas come while I'm waking up--then it's "too the computer" when I get up.

I don't really think of a lost plot point as a lost baby or anything. Others will come along. If it doesn't resonate enough to stick by the time I get it in a file (and most often with me, it's not an isolated thought; it keeps building until I can get to the computer), it's no great loss.

As far as cell phones, mine only makes calls, and I don't think I've made a call on it in over a year.

 

[sr71plt]

Religion clearly isn't your bag.

I prefer to think of it as the current minister's sermons aren't a revelation.

 

[49greg]

Many of my ideas come just before falling asleep at night - I guess that's when your brain starts to go off at all kinds of tangents, and I've thought, 'wow, that's marvelous' - but then the option is either to get out of bed and type it in or say to myself, 'tomorrow...zzzzzzz' and then buggered if I can think what the idea was next morning.
So any ideas are welcome?

That's been my experience as well. Sometimes I'm in a similar zone as I wake up, and just lay there going in and out of dreams that seem to be continuations of what I was thinking about. I used to think I was awake the whole time, but on several occasions my wife has told me I've been snoring the whole time.

Sometimes I've even retained some of the waking ideas.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

If I don't write it down, I'll probably lose it. When possible, I use the memo app on my phone to save them. If I can get to a computer other than my own, I'll send an email to myself. If those options aren't available, the ideas are usually forgotten. I don't get upset, but if it relates to a story I'm already writing, then I do get frustrated.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I email myself. (Failing that, is it possible to text yourself? I've never tried.)

 

[PennLady]

I email myself. (Failing that, is it possible to text yourself? I've never tried.)

I just tried it. Yes you can.

But if you have a phone that can text, you likely have a note or memo app which would be just as easy to use.

 

[Hypoxia]

I use no phone smarter than me because 1) my ego won't allow it and 2) cell coverage sucks in my remote mountain locale, and my cheap, dumb Tracfone works well enough the rare times I'm downhill in what passes for civilization.

Even if the Tracfone had a recording button/app, I'd still use my standalone Olympus VN-7200 digital voice recorder because 1) battery life is 86 hours (recording capacity up to 1100 hours) and 2) it's literally a one-hand two-button jig to operate. It's also quite stealthy and useful for recording conversations with nobody else knowing, heh heh.

I have a Vizio 8-inch Android tablet and a thin Bluetooth keyboard, and I just don't do text with them. That combo is more a backup than anything else; I do my writing on a 12.5-inch ThinkPad compact that only bulks slightly greater than the tablet+keyboard combo. I *can* use the tablet's soft keyboard but it's a bloody nuisance because I really am a fast touch-typist and anything but a real keyboard is just so fucking *tedious*. I hate tedium; it makes me want to get drunk.

So I dictate notes to myself when I'm on the move, and scribble in my notepad when I need be quiet (and shred those pages later), and mostly work on my ThinkPad with my LIT files stored in the DropBox cloud, and know that I can use the tablet+keyboard if everything else goes to shit. That's about enough for me.

 

[desertslave]

If you have a cell phone, a lot of them have some kind of note or memo function, under the tool menu, even if you don't have a smart phone.

Yup, depending on how much I need to tell myself I either use my sticky note app or a voice memo, or Evernote. I don't think I could survive without Evernote! It's where most of my brain lives, these days (the rest is in Dropbox).

 

[laptopwriter]

When I was working every day...

I used to carry a small voice recorder with me that took mini-cassettes. If I was on the road and saw a location I thought would be good for shooting, I made a note on my recorder. If I got an idea for a shoot, I made a note on my recorder.

Now I do the same thing for writing, only with a small digital voice recorder. They're extremely small and light weight, and most have several channels that allow you to make notes on several subjects, (or stories) without mixing them up. I use mine all the time.

 

[robertreams]

Like pilot, my writing is often foremost in my mind. I can easily remember where I want a story to go, or where my characters want to take me, even though I seem to never know what day it is. Sometimes I am so lost in my stories that my SO will have to poke me to get through However, I do have a very small tape recorder. Maybe if I started carrying it I could work more. But then, I would probably forget to take it with me. Oh well.

 

[SamScribble]

I have a Sony mini VR; the sort you see journos using at media scrums. But, to be honest, I hardly ever use it. I figure that if the thought came to me once, it will probably come to me again - hopefully, when I need it. Fingers crossed.