Take a Page from Rod Serling

Most young people don’t recognize the name Rod Serling, but they are usually aware of the effect he had on television and the horror/fantasy genre, namely his shows THE TWILIGHT ZONE and NIGHT GALLERY.

A fan once asked him where he the ideas for all his stories, since Rod contributed nearly 80% of all scripts. He answered he always carried a little spiral notebook with him, no matter where he was, and when he got a germ of an idea, he jotted it down. He even kept the notebook on his bedside table in case he woke up from a dream and wanted to remember it.

For me, having a notebook has been instrumental in helping me keep tabs of EVERYTHING pertinent to daily life and my stories. Long ago I used spiral notebooks before graduating to memo books. Now I buy nice hardback journals at the dollar store, and I jot everything down in them. And I do mean everything. (Hey, at my age, body parts start to fall off without warning. But the first thing to go is always the mind,right?)

To help me keep track of what’s where, pages containing details and notes about the novel I’m working on are marked with colored paperclips. Otherwise, a Post-It note stuck upside down so that a small "tab" sticks up from the top of the journal gives me a quick reference to other info like special dates, clothing sizes, phone numbers, etc. (Just mark the tab to remind you what’s there.)

For fun, I also tape stupid stuff like the fortunes from my Chinese take-out, the inserted cards on flower arrangements I received, and other odd items with sentimental value.

One day I’d like to think these journals might be worth something. (Yeah, I know, dream on! LOL!)