Have you ever seen two jugglers work at keeping the same six or eight balls in the air together? They face each other, but they never look at one another, only at the balls in the air (that's the whole trick of juggling, keep your eye on the ball). I juggle with the Muse some days, most days. Ideas are the balls in the air, my stock in trade both as a grant writer and a creative writer, so it's like being in the midst of a hive of bees a lot of the time. But that's another metaphor. I keep the many balls of idea aloft by being willing to be distracted from one by another, and also having great ways to quickly record them and remember where I put them. Enter the Smartphone -- in my case, an iPhone with dictation. A few words into my phone become a note becomes an email to myself, and I don't even have to slow my walking pace. More ideas that were central to some project came through this way!
What's your favorite device to catch the flying ideas on the wing?
