The Tools

Hospital waiting room. Not the best place to write. But I got the itch. That little nagging bit at the back of the skull that won’t shut up. We were there because Mary had the appointment, not me. I just had the plastic chair and the itch. Right, write then.

Bloody great idea. No laptop. No iPad. Leave it then. Don’t bother. Have a think, come up with new ideas. Wait though, I could write. There’s always the iPhone. Right? That’s got apps. 

Nah. Dumb. It’s alright for quick notes and that. But writing a full piece? Possible, yeah. But my fat fingers would make it fun. Leave it. 

Ah. But I got an idea, see. And at least an hour to wait. What if I lost the gist of it? Fuck it, there’s iA Writer on my phone. Write it. A rough draft. Get the idea down. That’d do. Daft though, tapping away on those tiny keys… 

I wasn’t leaving it. The idea was a good ‘un. Not one to leave in the ether. Get iA Writer open. Get the bugger down. 

There I was, hospital waiting room, tapping my iPhone screen like a man possessed. But it worked. It’s funny, but it was more important to catch the idea than worry about how I was doing it. And to be fair, iA Writer is a decent app. It sits there wanting your words. You can bang ‘em in. The fat fingers get help from autocorrect. 

But there’s a proper point here. It’s this. Better to catch the idea. Doesn’t matter if it’s rough. You can polish later. When I think about it, I’ve done that before. Sat on trains, at bus stops. Tap away, catch the idea. If it’s shite, you can delete it. But if it was good, there’s a chance you’ll not remember it right. To me? That’s far worse. 

Anyway, that’s that. The idea? You’ve read it now.