The importance of keeping a notebook handy

Yes, that's right! A notebook...I can't tell you how many times I've had an idea and failed to write it down to remind myself later and found later that I've forgotten the idea.

For instance, this morning I returned from work, fiddled around the house for a while before going to bed and just before sliding into the sheets, I had a great idea for this blog,, spent a couple of minutes composing and mentally filed it away. Upon awakening, I stumbled through my usual 'waking routine' and moved to the office to write. When I went to access this blog, my chagrin was very great when I realized that I could not remember one bit of what I had composed just before going to sleep.

I know that some people sneer and tilt their noses at the mere mention of a homely, old notebook, but the entire point of having one, or anything like it, is to be able to jot down reminders to yourself. Maybe you keep a journal in a PDA or some other device. I encourage you to continue to do so. If you, like me, are at the age where a notebook is more your speed and you haven't made the switch to completely electronic devices; then by all means, keep on keeping on! Just so you have a way to remind yourself of those pearls of wisdom that trickled through your brain just before going to sleep.

Sure, the effort of raising up in bed to jot down a few notes may not be conducive to getting your rest, but think of what you will have missed. You may have been putting words together in such a way as to put the most respected writers to shame, but it doesn't mean a thing if you don't ever publish them!

Now, I don't consider my writing to be anything special. I'm not persuasive, witty or erudite, and I freely admit those facts. However, I am a decent writer and sometimes find myself with a turn of phrase that simply begs for attention. Of those few instances, I am proud and that's part of why I write. Having managed in a small way to preserve my thoughts and creations for posterity, I am assured that when I am gone, someone, somewhere, will read my words and be moved. If just in a small way.

Fame would be nice, but it is not what drives me. I have never craved it. Not in the way that celebrities, movie stars and other performers seem to. If someone picks up one of my books, reads it and tells a friend that they just finished a good book, then I am relatively happy.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Congruencies, The Empty Heart: A Collection and others.
Available on Kindle