Thunderbolts and Laser Pens

Okay, I’m probably not alone in this, but it’s maddening how many ideas come to me when I’m not really at leisure to write any of them down. 1 AM in bed in a freezing cold room? Yup. In the shower, driving the car, and cleaning with corrosive substances are other golden places to get a stellar writing idea with little no time to take notes. The worst are song lyrics (which are as elusive as a wild badgers and come about as quietly) but story ideas — especially solutions to really sticky problems— can be just as annoying.

If you’re lucky you can repeat them to yourself like a mantra until you can wipe the soapy bleach off your fingers and get to a pad and pen, (or smart phone, or whatever you techno-haves possess these days. Laser-pens, probably). But if you’re like me, you suffer from the dual indignity of having horrific handwriting. I’m only kidding a little when I say my handwriting looks like someone taped a pencil to a rat and then taught the rat to do summersaults.

For example, I’m looking at my note-pad right now, and in between the million drawings of Spongebob Squarepants I’ve done to entertain my kids, is something that I almost positive is an important writing idea.

As far as I can tell it says, “Grit for nuttha futha dimpoe nimble rint. Kelo didot.”

Is it some secret language? Was I possessed and writing in tongues? Which of my book series was this even supposed to be for? What does it mean? And of course, there’s the possibility that this was something related to the dry-cleaning or grocery shopping.

So until someone invents a brainwave-to-text machine that I can use during my 5am toilet break, I’ll just make sure I’m NEVER be more than 3 feet away from my laptop.

Monica Marier is a caffeinated writer, artist, mother and eccentric. On weekdays, she’s busy working on her books, recording audio files, and composing short stories for her blog. On weekends she’s a co-founder of Tangent Artists.

Links:

Comics: www.tangentartists.com

Follow her on Twitter! @lil_monmon

Books: Available through Hunt Press http://www.huntpress.com/