Eric Staggs : Writer

Another tried and true method for defeating writer’s block is the idea file. Think of it as an imagination tool kit. It is, essentially, a binder designed to kick-start your imagination when your back is against a wall. They vary widely, but all have some basic elements in common. My idea tool kit is equipped as follows:

Clear, accordion-style, file binder:

• red pen
• black pen
• blue pen
• drawing pencils
• file folders (each labeled: news, magazine, notes, scrap)
• three rubber bands
• little red sticky-arrows
• two highlighters (yellow, green)
• moleskein notebook
• jumpdrive (128mb)
• drawing paper
• assorted crayons
• protractor
• scissors
• gluestick

The key to a successful idea toolkit is to be sure to stock it with ideas. Ideas range from magazine articles and news clippings to bar-napkin diagrams and models made of cigarette boxes. Personally, I scour a few websites every day, printing off odd headlines and stuff them in my file. I read them later, sometimes years later, when I’m out of ideas. Sometimes I just store the headlines: “sex smells lures vampire fish to doom” – um, yeah, that’s one that gets the brain going. Don’t store articles you know by heart or on topics on which you are an expert. Those won’t get the creative juices flowing. They’ll reinforce the validity of your knowledge base, and you’ll still have nothing to write about.

Search far and wide. Pick up magazines you would normally never touch. I found in a Field and Stream an article entitled “Trapped under your four-wheeler, surrounded by wolves…” After laughing hysterically at the thought of being trapped under your four-wheeler, abandoned by your friends, your weapon lost and snarling Romanian, shape-shifting wolves circling you with murder in their eyes, their bloody teeth gnashing, just waiting for you to use up the last bit of your strength struggling to escape, so they can… what, eat your face… I pulled the article headline, the accompanying illustration (and with respect to the very skilled illustrator) I tucked it away under “misc human mistakes.”

Use your printer. Print like mad. Print photos. Draw on them. Draw diagrams. Don’t think your creativity need to be bound by the keyboard and the flickering, sickly blue glow of that expensive LCD you bought because you thought it would help you stay focused (instead it just hypnotizes you, lulls you into a false sense of security and then BAM, your story is late).

Sometimes I take my Idea File with me. I take it to bars and page through two-color ‘Zines printed out on bright pink paper by over zealous college freshmen. I scissor out the Xerox-machine looking pictures and toss them in the file.

The dentists office is filled with Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. An idea explosion. Plus, I think I get a chuckle thinking that the next person to read the magazine if going to wonder who cut out all the photos of airplanes in a single issue.