I’ve mentioned Colin Davies before. He’s a very clever writer and an incredibly thoughtful friend. Colin has compiled the Horror Writer’s Notebook which is now available on Amazon.
I once read advice that said, “Don’t bother collecting your ideas in notebooks. If you forget an idea, then it clearly wasn’t that good in the first place.” I have to say – this advice is absolute horseshit. Every idea we write down has the potential to become something. I’ve written down ideas that I would never have otherwise recalled after that moment of inspiration, and some of those ideas have been subsequently developed into successful stories. Admittedly, I’ve also written down some ideas that looked like the ramblings of a maniac when I returned to them. But the only ideas I’ve ever regretted are the ones I never committed to a notebook.
This is not to suggest that a notebook should be used solely for plotting entire novels or series. It just needs to be something sufficiently portable to be always handy, and is capable of recording information such as notes, thoughts, snippets of overheard dialogue, ideas for scenes, foibles for characters, titles, opening lines, or anything else that, as a writer, you think might be pertinent to current or future projects.
This sort of resource serves as a handy repository for all the ideas that come to me when my mind is distracted by the minutiae of day-to-day life. As a consequence, when I find myself with time to write but no ongoing project, I always have a notebook filled with potential ideas that I can use as a starting point.
But the Horror Writer‘s Notebook offers more. Aside from being a portable size, there are also prompts on every other page to inspire your imagination. “What if everything you write happens?” or “What if that toy over there just moved?”
This is delightful addition for the arsenal of every wannabe horror writer, and works as a wonderful gift for that special weirdo in your life who enjoys writing about the sinister and the macabre.
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