Lost Thoughts

Twice now I've had these really great ideas for what I was going to write here. Both happened last week, and while one of them has since occurred to me again I can't remember exactly what it was I was going to say about the whole topic.

The other one was just completely lost. Other than the vague notion that it was a really great idea and would have made an excellent post. One of those ideas.

Now, I know, as a writer I'm supposed to keep something on hand so I can write my ideas down anywhere they strike. And I have an idea book that's kept me company for years for those odd random thoughts (first one is from a Barnes & Nobles in Illinois and how the parking lot smelled like cows). Unfortunately, it can't always be on my person. And sometimes by the time I have the chance to write down the idea to keep it, it's gone.

I was able to write down a solution to a short story that's been bugging me for months, because I had that thought in the house, might have even been a dream but was more likely that space between dreaming and waking... though ideas have come to me in my sleep. And in the shower. And on the road. Which is where that second lost idea occurred to me. Right there at a traffic light. With no time and no opportunity to write it down.

And try as I might, I haven't been able to get it back. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can recreate the thought processes, chase down the errant strands, and get back to where I was. And sometimes, it's just gone. That's when it gets really frustrating. Granted these ideas were just for a blog and not a story or a novel, so it's not a huge loss, but who knows? It might have germinated into something else.

At the very least, it would have given me something to write down last week and make this blog look like I'm actually trying to keep it rather than slowly abandoning it to its fate.