Keeping Notes Only Works If You Read Them

Like most writers, I keep a notebook -- or forty. Most of them are filled with ideas for STBD -- character notes, story ideas, slivers of scenes and dialogue.

A lot of what I write down is what I've overheard while writing in public. Very often, a passing car or an overheard conversation in a cafe will prompt a (seemingly) good idea that I'll jot down with the intention of returning to later...

... except I rarely do.

For some reason, I have REAMS of notebooks filled with ideas, and I hardly ever return to them. It's almost as if, by committing them to paper once, I expect to remember them forever.

And, oddly, I usually do. In fact, most of the primary ideas for STBD have been around for years, and new concepts that seem hot will usually stick in my mind for months afterwards, waiting for a chance to be manifested in the show.

But, as I learned yesterday, there are exceptions to this pattern.

Ideas Are Like Wine... or Cheese...

I was staying at a hotel without my standard (current) notebook, so I went to the car for my Emergency Travel Notebook instead. Upon opening it, I realize I haven't written in it since April of 2006 -- well over a year. More surprising was the quality of the ideas that were trapped in its pages, many of which had never been transferred elsewhere -- including into the show.

Among these ideas:

- If I were to restart STBD from scratch -- what would I do differently?

- Dozens of notes written from the character Glenn's POV -- none of which have been used on the show.

- Dozens more ideas meant to add depth and a sense of place to both the radio station and the cafe -- none of which have been used on the show.

Part of the reason these ideas might seem more worthwhile now is that they've had time to age. It's often hard to gauge the quality of a new idea upon inception, because you have nothing to compare it to except the endless possibilities of the future. Instead, deciding on one course -- and then looking back to see how other paths might have fared -- affords me the proper perspective to say, "This would have worked much better," or, "We should DEFINITELY do this next."

So now I'm thinking: I have several dozen notebooks in this apartment. I wonder how much gold is waiting to be mined within their pages...