The Readiness Is All

Your first thought is usually your best, so be careful not to have it until you are ready for it. This applies to an idea for a story, the inspiration for a plot twist, or the honing of the perfect phrase. Once you have had the thought, if you don't jot it down straight away, the chances of you recreating it in all its perfection are pretty much zilch.

There are a couple of ways in which you can help yourself with this. I'm not organised enough to always carry a notebook with me, but I do generally have a pen stuck in a pocket or wedged at the bottom of my bag and I have often resorted to writing ideas down on bus tickets and saving them for later. In a similar vein, if I have managed to get my brilliant idea onto my computer, I do always try to back it up when I have finished working on it, as I have learned from bitter experience that if you lose a precious paragraph or (heaven forfend) a chapter, it is almost impossible to rebuild it phrase by phrase, and that first clarity and lightness of touch is lost for ever.

I don't want to sound too girl guide-ish, but as a writer you do need to be prepared, although not in the way that you might think.  You need to be prepared not to write about the idea when you have it.  Note it down when it first comes to you so that you don't lose track of it, but then tuck it away inside your head and let your subconscious get to work on it.  If you write it too soon before you have allowed it to mature, before your imagination has seasoned it properly, you will never have the chance to write it for the first time again -- that opportunity will be gone for good. It's a question of timing: if you can leap in to action at that point when freshness is balanced by reflection, then you will truly be ready to write.  Don't squander that moment, because revision doesn't bring with it that jawdropping sense of wonder that vision can inspire.