Notes to self

When I am going about my everyday life, I often scribble thoughts and ideas down. I have tried to be grown-up and carry a notebook in which to do so. As with many attempts at maturity I have failed. Instead I jot things on whatever scrap of paper comes to hand.

My personal favourite is the backs of old envelopes so that I feel vaguely environmentally responsible. Sometimes it is napkins and sometimes the tiniest scraps of paper that I find later and try to puzzle out what I was trying to say.

Sometimes you have to do it surreptitiously like when you hear an especially juicy piece of dialogue in a doctor's waiting room. You don't want people to realise that you are writing down what they say. When I am working, I turn on my digital recorder and look vaguely professional. At other times, I am sure that I look furtive.

Cleaning out my backpack in a half-hearted attempt to get ready for the new year, I found a scrap of paper with a phrase I found fascinating at the time. It still resonates:

"We expect to be interested..."

I'm fairly sure that it is from a meeting with a public servant. I'm trying to work out how to use it in my writing without sounding too pompous. Or maybe I could insert a pompous character into a story. The power of the author...