If I take time to recognize ideas and realizations from observation and thinking, from reading, watching and conversations, I find that I get many each hour. Some seem trite or repeats that I have noticed or thought before. But others are surprising and intriguing.
Books can lead to thoughts but thoughts can lead to books, too. I sent an ebook to a friend. She is a specialist in the subject and it was very inexpensive. She wrote back and her formal signature included information that got me thinking about academic life and the current emphasis on innovation in business training. I have five messages from Amazon just this morning and that company tries to sell products every chance it gets. So, I know about a book on innovation that I looked up. It is somewhat more expensive than I want to pay so I went online to have the university library borrow it from elsewhere.
Friends' comments, passages in books, tasks I need to perform around the house – there are many subjects for a note about this or that. I can picture a secretary or assistant, clipboard with paper and pencil in hand, following me around all day, making a note about this and that. These days, I could make a video or an audio recording but written items are much faster to look through than trying to find something on a recording.
Lynn makes pottery but she also looks at pottery and ceramics groups on Facebook and elsewhere. She too makes notes and sketches of ideas that are of interest. I am interested in the techniques and technology of notes and reminders. What is the most convenient form for them? Where are they best kept to easy location and browsing? I don't even know whether what is happening today is more often a good stimulus for a blog post or if one of five headings I think of or choose from recent notes is more likely to strike a chord with me.
It takes a little more confidence to just open a blank page and start composing that I usually have. So, I need an inspiration. Or, at least, I think I do. Once I have the feeling under my belt that I know what I want to write, I can sit down and compose. I see that I often get off on a new slant while composing but I need what seems inspirational, what feels satisfactory to get started.
