Showerthought: My niece asked me why I still write my story ideas in a notebook.

I was visiting my sister in Tacoma last weekend, and my 12-year-old niece saw my old leather notebook full of scribbled ideas. She said, 'Why don't you just type them in your phone like everyone else?' I told her it felt different, more real, but her question made me wonder if I'm just clinging to a habit. Do you think the tool you use to capture ideas changes the ideas themselves?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_torres713d ago

My buddy Dave is a carpenter who still sketches all his project plans on graph paper. He tried using a tablet once, said the ideas came out too perfect and clean, like they were already finished. But with a pencil, he'd make a wobbly line, see it looked like a river, and suddenly the whole deck design would change to wrap around an imaginary creek. The smudges and mistakes on paper actually led him somewhere new. His phone just recorded what he already thought.

emmawood2d ago

Wait, but my tablet sketches are full of mistakes too. I use a cheap stylus that skips and makes weird blobs. Last week I was drawing a garden layout and a glitchy line made me think of adding a winding path instead of straight rows. The tool doesn't matter as much as how you use it. You can make digital messy if you want to.

charles4423d ago

Actually, that's a really good question from your niece. It reminds me of how paying with cash feels different than tapping a card, even though it's the same money. The notebook probably makes your ideas feel more solid, like they exist in the real world, not just in some cloud. I bet you remember the ideas better when you write them by hand, too. It's not just a habit, it's a different way of thinking that a phone screen can't really copy.