Strangest place you've written notes for you WIP?

[jannawrites]

We'd gone on a family trip to Colorado, and coming back home we stopped at the Denny's in Limon for lunch. The paper placemat got a smattering of my ideas... it's filed away for safe keeping now. :)

[Prawn]

Watching the prostitutes at the beach.

[Moon Daughter]

In the bathroom...while...

[wyntermoon]

Well the last two got mine beat.

I once wrote an outline for an article on the back of a (clean) diaper at a softball game.

[Sassee]

I've done it in a company meeting before. Those all-employee meetings to discuss quarter results. Look, I'm taking notes, I swear...

[JoNightshade]

While driving.

Okay, so after a couple minutes, I pulled over.

I also write on napkins, envelopes, crumpled receipts in my purse... I should really carry a notebook, hm?

[deathwizard]

I've done the sex thing in strange places, but I don't remember ever doing any writing or note-taking in other than the traditional locales.

[Moon Daughter]

Well the last two got mine beat.

I once wrote an outline for an article on the back of a (clean) diaper at a softball game.

Oh, man! Why didn't I think of that?!

And all those times I spent babysitting my nephews when they were babies and had no paper. :D

[BlueLucario]

In my bedroom writing the whole story on my cell phone with unlimited web access.

[Stormhawk]

My mobile phone, as the lights were going down for the movie to start.

[ChaosTitan]

I've written notes on napkins, paper placemats, backs of receipts, envelopes, voided checks. Basically any useful scrap of paper that happens to be within reach.

Location-wise, I've written notes while standing in line at theme parks, while driving (I don't recommend it), in the middle of dinner at a restaurant, at work, almost anywhere.

[narnia]

I've done it in a company meeting before. Those all-employee meetings to discuss quarter results. Look, I'm taking notes, I swear...

How else can you make it through without falling asleep and embarrassing yourself? :D

[Moon Daughter]

Speaking of receipts, when I was working at a department store and had no customers in my line, I'd take some receipt paper and write on it. Unfortunately, I had many more ideas at the most inconvenient times.

[tammieofmi]

Great questions. Back of receipts shoved in my purse or pockets but once I got a palm pilot - it has a notepad and I scribble away until I can get home.

Love the use of the diaper!

[Siddow]

In the drive-thru of McD's, in a notebook kept in the car for just this purpose.

[slcboston]

I tend to carry a notebook at all times - though not always THE notebook... strangest place I've ever had an idea come to me was the bathroom at a large chain booksellers - that was located alongside some farmland. The juxtaposition of the aroma of cows and the trendy cool nature of the bookstore inspired me to jot down some lines.... but they didn't come instantly and waited until I was making use of the facilities. :D

[PattiTheWicked]

On my left arm, with a Sharpie. I had some great ideas, a pen, and NOTHING to write on. By the time I was done, I looked like the guy in Memento.

[TrainofThought]

Once, I wrote a few ideas on a guy’s hand and then burned the layer of skin off so I could take it home. The whole body wasn’t worth bringing home. :D

Seriously, I haven’t written notes in strange places. Writing ideas or notes on anything, anywhere, other than your lover's butt is normal to me. :Shrug:

[jenngreenleaf]

On the bottom of my foot. :) I've also been known to leave myself voicemails when I can't find a pen (and I hate texting, so that'll never happen).

[TrainofThought]

I've also been known to leave myself voicemails when I can't find a pen (and I hate texting, so that'll never happen).I do this for everything I won't remember, which is a lengthy list.

[shakeysix]

in a mental institution. swear to god. and no, i was just visiting--s6

[Moon Daughter]

in a mental institution. swear to god. and no, i was just visiting--s6

What a fit place for most authors. ;)

[jenngreenleaf]

I do this for everything I won't remember, which is a lengthy list.LOL I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. I'm notorious for calling myself on the way home with lengthy lists, notes, reminders, and other oddities. What's worse is that I usually leave the message on the phone I'm using. hee hee

[TrickyFiction]

At work on a plastic bag, and years later on a pastry bag. I was desperate.
After that, I bought a little book to carry around with me.

[Feathers]

I think the diaper got us all beat.

I used to have a cleaning job where I washed my hands every five seconds, so If I had an idea and didn't want to forget it i'd scribble it down on my forarm. A little squishy. It often lasted for over a week and looked like some wierd punk tatoo.

I carry around a notebook, now, but before I used to write on whatever I could find. I have this folder filled with paper and cardboard scraps, cereal box tops, envelope corners...

-Feathers

[wyntermoon]

I've also been known to leave myself voicemails when I can't find a pen (and I hate texting, so that'll never happen).

I do that too!

Luckily (?) I have an almost steady stream of diapers at my beck and call due to the constant parade of children I pop out. It's a great conversation starter too, that article netted me some excellent quotes from other parents!

[scarletpeaches]

Notes? Notes? Are you accusing me of being an...an...outliner? :eek:

[HourglassMemory]

I've written notes, mostly in my bedroom.
But I often do it in restaurants, cafes. You know, in paper napkins or those paper towels they put on the table. Then I rip it off. And I often draw. So many times I leave the restaurant and the paper towel looks like it was bitten several times by a shark.
Once or twice in the car.
During class.
I don't think I've ever written in the bathroom. I've read in the bathroom.

But no, I guess the weirdest yet has been inside the car.

[HeronW]

During a concert before the main act, Pat Benatar, some idiot band was on I didn't know and didn't care for. I took those 50 'wasted' min. and filled out about 15 3x5" sheets on a tiny pad I had with me, finishing a chapter that had been bothering me for ages.

[PastMidnight]

I'm with everyone: backs of envelopes, napkins, receipts, etc. Once, while on a long car trip, I jotted down a scene on a napkin, folded it, and set it on the floor of the car. One of the kids lost her lunch and my ever-helpful husband mopped up the mess with the napkins he found on the floor.

[Conman]

I write notes on my hands all the time. I once drew a map for a fantasy on the back of my hand.

And I write (almost) all of my notes at school.

[jannawrites]

Good stuff!

Of course, this means I'm gonna look for any unusual circumstance to jot some notes down, just so I can post in this thread...

[Thrillride]

I've done the sex thing in strange places, but I don't remember ever doing any writing or note-taking in other than the traditional locales.

HAHAHA! Deathwizard - I almost spewed my drink all over the screen!

I am going to be honest here and admit that I write notes while I am driving. I really do. I drive a LOT and I get ideas...

I promise my eyes don't leave the road, I reach over and do a shorthand of sorts. It's hard to make it out later, though. I have to guess at some of my words.

~Thrill

[DeborahM]

While in the car, I use a voice recorder. Most of the time I carry a journal for ideas, overheard comments, etc.

However, one time I was with a male friend watching him bowling on his Saturday night league, when suddenly I had to have paper. I luckly found several copies of the previous weeks tally for each person, which they didn't want after looking at them. Dennis was in the middle of his second game and when he was packed and ready to go, I had just finished page 5, which was just in time because the urge to write what was in my head was gone.

Even while typing away on my WIP, and an idea pops up, I go to the end, where there's a list of thoughts and items to make sure I've covered them. It's easier to keep them there then lost on my desk among lots of other papers.

[ebenstone]

A few years back, while still working on my first novel, some cousins and I decided to go to the casino...I didn't have to drive and had been at Barnes and Nobles doing some schoolwork when they called with my laptop. En route to the casino, I wrote. From there came the bet that led to the completion of that novel.

[Enzo]

Notes for book ideas? Usually at restaurants, sometimes on train or bus.
But when I take a long soak in my bathtub I make sure I have a pen and piece of paper lying somewhere nearby.
You never know when inspiration strikes.

[reenkam]

I usually write on post-its when I get random ideas. But I've written on napkins, old receipts, new receipt paper (which I probably shouldn't have taken out of the register), index cards, bags, coupons, notebooks (in class), my hand. I think that's it...

[jasperd]

I had to take my daughter to the emergency room one night because she was having a pretty bad asthma attack. While I was waiting for the doctor (which always takes about 2 hours) my daughter fell asleep and I wrote an entire picture book on a napkin I had in my purse.

[dgiharris]

A few times, i've woken up from a dream, can feel the memory fading, and in order to capture it, i've written on the wall.

Otherwise, i've also called myself and left a voicemail.

Mel...

[Paichka]

On a convoy once from Qayyarah to Tikrit. (It was 3 in the morning, I was sitting in the back of the humvee and couldn't see a damn thing, and they wouldn't let me listen to the combat radio)

I actually never pay attention in meetings anymore -- I perk up for the few slides that actually pertain to me as the Adjutant...then I go back to jotting notes and storylines. Fun fun. Mine are only interesting because I'm in Iraq. :)

[dancingandflying]

toilet paper, receipts, my math homework, my arm and hands, my jeans, a length of ribbon, my teacher's whiteboard, tables (scratched into the wood), other people's skin, paper napkins, butcher paper (used as a table cloth at restaurants so kids can color), postcards, and my binders (i rip the plastic so i can write on the cardboard).

[WistfulWriter7]

I definitely write all over the place...mostly in class on the side of my "actual notes" but every once in a while I find myself not with my laptop *gasp* I know... and text myself ie in the middle of the night. When I was nine I wrote on my little sister's leg (she was 5) because she really wanted another story from "her jenny" =( She doesn't want stories anymore though...she's a big bad teenager now who never reads and spends 3 hours straightening her hair =o

[triceretops]

Guarding a construction site on the graveyard shift, way up in the mountains. I used my domelight and ran my battery down. Had to wait for the relief guard to jump me off. It was my first non-fiction book.

Tri

[Straka]

On the back of a dirty, grease spotted, paper table matte at the Jet dinner in Alfred, NY.

Came up with some darn good concepts on that mess.

[Garpy]

Oh, man! Why didn't I think of that?!

And all those times I spent babysitting my nephews when they were babies and had no paper. :D

You can fit quite a few notes on a baby if you write small.

[KTC]

I don't write notes about my WIPs...but I do write dialogue. I write them on anything and everything. I have a jean jacket that, if you put it inside out, you will see the following two excerpts written with a sharpie on the inside lining:

“You fucking liar,” said Trig. “You don’t want to do anything. You run away from every Goddamned thing in your life but mediocrity, Billy. I’m leaving now and I don’t want you to follow me.”

and

“You two are seriously fucked,” Marcy said, shaking her head. “You’re too much alike. Who the fuck sings Jimmy fucking Buffet, anyway?”
“Don’t make me sing Neil Diamond, bitch!” I said.


I write on whatever I have on hand. If it's not paper, it gets written on anyway.

[Madison]

1. Assignments I've turned into my teachers (which defeats the purpose)
2. My dinner plate, in the left-over gravy. dishwasher took care of that idea.
3. In my school planner. Jan. 3: she really doesn't go into the cave. actually, the end lies with the waterfall. and Finn dies. but how does she go back changed? no, I'm not crazy, really.
4. On four napkins, every inch filled with text. Why I did this I do not know, for my computer was a step away and notebook paper right by my fingers.
5. The sole of my shoe.
6. But mostly I leave notes in my head, which have a strange tendency to disappear when I need to remember them and appear in the middle of a test or while I'm driving or talking to someone.

[jannawrites]

I discovered yesterday while in the loo that I really should have notebooks in each room of my house.

[Zelenka]

1. On the back of a ticket for Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings
2. In the margins of the script for several sports programmes I was supposed to be working on
3. On a bus ticket

Nowadays I carry a notebook in my handbag.

[Hropkey]

I carry a notebook with me, so the "writing-on-the-back-of-things" doesn't really happen to me, but the most unusual place I've ever written was in the bathroom of a family restuerant when I was on a date. XD I write in class constantly, too.

[scribbler1382]

In a quiet alcove in the Louvre under a painting of Dante's Inferno on my tour map. I'd just gone to see the Mona Lisa and was met with a room packed with about 150 people all holding their cell phones up over their heads trying to take pictures of the plastic-encased Lisa and was hit with about 47 ideas I needed to get down. :)

[Paula Boon]

One time I jotted some notes on a plastic grocery bag while driving. I pulled over after a minute or two and sat at the side of the road covering the bag with ideas which became the novel that got me an agent last August.

I've also written notes on that rough, brown paper towel stuff from the dispenser at my gym. There's nothing like being in the middle of a cardio session, all sweaty, for producing ideas you _must_ write down.

[slcboston]

In a quiet alcove in the Louvre under a painting of Dante's Inferno on my tour map. I'd just gone to see the Mona Lisa and was met with a room packed with about 150 people all holding their cell phones up over their heads trying to take pictures of the plastic-encased Lisa and was hit with about 47 ideas I needed to get down. :)

Oooh, that's good - I was hoping there were such quiet places in that museum as I have a quick scene that relies on such spaces. But having never been to Paris, I could only surmise. :)

[slcboston]

You can fit quite a few notes on a baby if you write small.

Yes, but getting them to lie flat later so you can read them can be REALLY tricky... :D

[scribbler1382]

Oooh, that's good - I was hoping there were such quiet places in that museum as I have a quick scene that relies on such spaces. But having never been to Paris, I could only surmise. :)
There's all kinds of little side alcoves, mostly filled with lesser known works, which is why they tend to be less frequented. There's also little leather benches so you can rest before trying to find your way out of the monster. You seem to spend most of the time going up or down stairs, or following "sortie" signs that lead no where. Very cool place, though.