A Mnemonic Device for Writers

[dannye_chase]

 

A Mnemonic Device for Writers

Writers know the struggle: we’re running errands, exercising, cleaning, when the characters in our head start talking. The plot hole solves itself, the twist ending is revealed, the villain finally says the right line. It’s all fine and good if you’ve got a moment to stop and make notes. But if you’re driving, swimming, or chasing a preschooler at the park, you run the risk of forgetting your great ideas.

I learned to use a peg-word mnemonic system in high school psychology, and I’ve always loved it. It’s a simple way to remember a list of items when you don’t have a way to write them down. There are many to choose from, but my favorite uses words that rhyme with the numbers one through ten:

1. Bun
2. Shoe
3. Tree
4. Door
5. Hive
6. Sticks
7. Heaven
8. Gate
9. Shrine
10. Hen

To use this as a writer, you’ll have to distill your new plot info into a few salient notes, and then imagine those notes associated with the objects on the list. Let’s try a test case. 

Say your fantastic new plot is: at the grocery store, Jane wants to ask out a cute girl named Barbara. But Barbara is not paying attention because she’s just found a dragon’s egg in her cart.

What keywords you choose are subjective: it’s whatever you want to remember as the important elements in the new idea. So for example:

1. Character names: imagine the words “Jane” and “Barbara” written in ketchup on a hot dog bun
2. Setting: imagine a tennis shoe sitting in a grocery cart, next to a dragon’s egg.

For dialogue, which is the stuff I forget most, pick out the general beats of the conversation, using whatever abbreviated keywords will remind you of the whole thing. Say Jane says:

“Hey I just met you! And this is crazy! But here’s my number. So call me may—OMG is that a dragon egg?”

3. Imagine carved on a tree “Hey” and/or “just met”

4. Imagine carved on a door “crazy”

5. Imagine a bee hive, with a word written in honey: “number” or “my number”

6. Imagine spelled out in sticks: “may—OMG”

I find that the time I spend trying to create my list also helps cement the ideas in my head. Keep refreshing the pictures in your mind—bun, shoe, tree, door, hive, sticks (remember, those rhyme with with one, two, three, four, five, six)—until you get to a point where you can write it down. And there’s your plot, safe and sound! And also a dragon egg, apparently.

Happy writing!

This article was first published on my writing blog

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