A Cowboy And Cat Poop

Writing every day is HARD.

There. I said it!

Maintaining a daily practice takes discipline. You need to enjoy the activity or else you won’t keep the routine going.

Some writers have a natural flair for being able to find ideas out of thin air. Others have to actively search for ideas. I have experienced both sides of idea generation. It keeps me on my toes (or fingers..?).

I am always in awe when an idea or the exact words hit me like a tonne of bricks. At times it hurts (and many times it stinks, as you will read below). I am also grateful they came to me in a way that felt natural.

Take my WOW moment, for example, from last year. I didn’t ask for it. I wasn’t seeking anything like it. The moment woke me up one night and I had to write. 600+ days later and here I am.

A separate moment with THE TREE woke something inside me while awake to expand on a thought I already had.

I have similar experiences like these more often than I document. They are not as profound as the WOW moment or the TREE, yet important enough to spark writing ideas (when I remember to capture them).

For the remainder of the year, I plan to focus more on the habit of writing down ANY ideas or sparks as soon as they appear in my head. This means I need to get more comfortable with my mind, no matter how wacky it can get at times!

People ask me:

• “How do you come up with your (writing) ideas?”

• “Where do your ideas come from?”

I wish I had an easy answer to this. If I respond with “Meh, some ideas just come to me,” you will let out a long and loud groan.

Take a deep breath as we groan in harmony.

Writing ideas never come from a consistent place. I always start with a blank page, like everyone else. Since starting this creative journey, I have discovered ideas can come from ANYWHERE.

In a previous newsletter, I spoke about how DREAMS are a haven for creative ideas. Interactions with co-workers, family and friends in person and online have sparked many writing ideas and newsletters.

Here are a few other ways ideas have made their way to me:

✨Cleaning:

House cleaning is a way to unwind and make positive space in a dusty mind.

I have a special place in my heart for my Dyson canister vacuum. I love how clean the floors look after the dirt is sucked off the floor. Many times when I vacuum I will be thinking of different things throughout my day. There have been times when an idea gets sucked right into my head.

And it’s not only when I am sucking, either. As crazy as this sounds, I have received a few wacky ideas while cleaning the cat litter. Once I was scooping a stinky pile and suddenly had an epiphany about goals and the linear path. DEEP. I quickly wrote this idea down before dealing with poop again.

Yes, I did wash my hands in between…

✨Walking & Exercise:

Ideas may spark from a current experience, and physical exercise brings you into the present moment. I remember having all kinds of “amazing” ideas when I used to racewalk regularly. Never wrote them down. HUGE mistake.

NOW when I go for walks I bring my phone and/or a hard-copy notebook and pen. I keep these tools close when doing yoga or other exercise at home. It is not easy to record these sparks while on the move. I hope my experimentation with audio will help with capturing these ideas at the moment and encourage more fitness.

✨People-watching

Ever look at a stranger and wonder what their “story” could be?

I have these moments all the time when riding public transit. There was once a “Cowboy” who would grace us with his presence during our afternoon bus rides. As soon as he walked on the bus he would announce himself as the bus cowboy and begin extremely loud conversations with various people on the bus. He always had a toothless smile to share before the bus driver would kick him out for his “rowdiness.”

Who is this cowboy? Where did he come from? What does he want from us “common bus-riding folk?” Why haven’t I seen him in 6 years? Did he ever meet his cow-life partner? Why doesn’t he ever pay the fair? How did he lose his teeth? Why did he always have that “Cheshire Cat” grin? What was he REALLY grinning about?

So many questions!!!

More importantly… There is a story here, right???

“Urban Bus Cowboy…” I’m writing it down…

✨Images and GIFS

When I first started sharing on Twitter/X, I would look for images to help frame my message. More often these days, the photos and GIFs will write themselves.

At times, images will spark something completely unexpected. A perfect example happened a few weeks ago. I haven’t been more excited to write a short story in a long time. All because of a winking GIF!

Never underestimate the power of imagery.

✨Brain dumps

Outside of cleaning cat poop, I take dumps in my journal regularly.

Brain dumps spawn into ideas for this newsletter and other writings. Ideas shared in my journal may spawn other piles of thoughts. It’s fun to look back at over a year of journal entries and see untouched piles yet to be fully flushed out. Having a regularly scheduled routine helps. I may be unintentionally training my brain to dump at a particular time of the day.

You may not yet realize the unique way ideas appear to you. Whether it be showers, music, shopping, touching fruit… I'm not here to judge (or groan). The important thing is to remember to capture the spark as soon as it comes to you. Write or record these ideas for later. Too many times I allowed a spark to slip through my fingers (the TREE is a great example of this - thankfully I had a delayed recall of my original thought).

I want to stress that I am not gifted with ideas coming to me naturally. I am learning to listen better to my mind and body. Ideas are everywhere. At times it may appear as a huge WOW moment right in front of you, other times it shows up as a small stinky pile of poop. An idea is an idea. Either way, my challenges and learnings involve:

1. Recognizing when the idea is presenting itself; and

2. Capturing the idea for current or future use.

When ideas don’t come to me naturally, I have to go digging for them. More to come in a future newsletter.

Until then…

Spark on, fellow creatives.

Naddy / Nadine