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by Evie Coates on December 30, 2007 
I have the occasional thought, as I drive in my old, noisy truck or walk through my neighborhood, that could possibly turn into a decent narrative. These little would-be gems fly back out of my cavernous, echoing brain (there’s not much of substance up there, I’m afraid) as soon as they enter, very much like the frantic little birds who sometimes accidentally fly into my kitchen. I don’t think I’m the only person to whom this happens. This only makes me feel marginally better about it. So, I recently asked Santa for a device which might help: a tape recorder. I’ll be a dictating fool. I’ll be one of those people who talks incessantly to absolutely no one in her car as all of you normal folk look on in amusement. The problem is that Santa brought me some other stuff, but not the tape recorder.I still intend to procure one because, I have a feeling that with a little help in the recollection department these days, I’ll get a bit further on the road to feeling like A Real Writer.
Nashville native Evie Coates is an accomplished visual artist, chef extraordinaire, and appreciator of many things both strange and wonderful.
2 Comments
1972 days ago
I have the same issue and for a long time I’ve kept a little box of 3×5 cards around for those moments when I’ve just got to write something down before I lose it. I especially try to have it near the bed for those nights when I awake out of some dream of ridiculous clarity that I know I’ll forget come morning.
So that all sounds well and good but the reality is that when I go back and read those cards, they are generally so obtuse, bizarre and often groan-inducing that I haven’t the faintest idea why I was moved to write them down to begin with. Let me dig out an example…here’s one that says (and I’m not kidding here):
“Corn, beans, potatoes, and Bunyan”
That’s gonna win the Pulitzer one day I tell ya. Here’s another:
(word for word, I swear)
“The Pretender: Two brothers, two sisters, one couple are married, the others are total opposites. During a friendly dinner, the opposites pretend they are attracted. The married couple are silently shocked.”
Just wow. The funniest part is to remember that I thought that idea (what ever it is) was so important that it simply had to be recorded for the betterment of mine and the world’s future. I’d go on but I’d only further embarrass myself. So if you never get that tape recorder, I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. On the other hand, there are a precious few cards in here that have spawned passages and characters in the manuscript I’m working on publishing. Either way, good luck, you are a real writer because you sit down and do it.
1947 days ago
I was watching a show with my mom years ago – I was probably 10 or 11 and I think it was about Eddie Murphy, but I’m not sure. He was going on about his little notepad beside his bed and how he writes his funny ideas there at night and reviews them the next morning. Once he said he woke up and checked it out and it said “Mayonaise” Crazy, man.
On an unrelated note, but related to the post, I have a friend working on several books and he has 2 desks – 1 is for studies, etc, one is just for his writing. And he has each book in a seperate pile with all the research/brainstorming he has done for each project. Thats how he stays organized. Pretty sharp fella. Anyhow, that might help any would-be writers with too many ideas to keep straight. I’ll try to use my computer to organized mine, but I’ll just save and forget about it. Then 3 months later I’m like, wow, that was a neat idea, i gotta get back to that, which I of course dont.
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