The magic of ideas

Like many writers, I hoard words and phrases.

I keep mine in idea notebooks. I have about twenty of them tucked away in drawers and on shelves, in my purse and in my car, and in my laptop bag.

You never know when inspiration will strike and you'll need to record it. Sometimes I use the memo app or voice recorder on my phone, but I prefer to put pen to paper when I receive a message from my muse.

This notebook is unusual. It contains typed ideas. Sometimes I write bits of verse or prose on scraps of paper, old envelopes, sticky notes, or faded receipts. Those are hard to keep up with (they flutter away like confetti at a parade), so I transcribe them into a Word document and print them for future use.

I added a little flourish to this photo to show how magical it feels when I open one of my notebooks for an unused idea.

How do you keep track of your ideas?