Recorder, please

I need a mind recorder. Not a voice recorder, but a mind recorder. During my daily commutes I often spend a lot of time just thinking and musing about various things that would make great blog entries, but when I get home or into work I get involved or distracted by things and never get around to writing up the blogs. I also spend a lot of time writing stories in my head, or thinking about a fantasy world I’ve created for the background of some of my stories. But again, I never seem to find the time once I get home to actually “put pen to paper”, as the saying used to go (what is the equivalent in today’s world – “fingers on the keyboard”?).

Now usually I’m doing all this musing and “writing” silently in my head. Every once in a while, I’ll think about getting some sort of digital voice recorder, and I’ll try “writing” out loud. But that doesn’t work – speaking it out loud seems too slow, takes up too much of my thought process, lessens my creativity. When I “write” in my head, I’m usually thinking of more than one thing at once, or quickly jumping back and forth between tangents and the main story. But when I try speaking out loud, I can pretty much work on only one topic at a time. Is this making any sense? I’m not sure if I’m describing the situation well. And I’m sure the “distraction” of driving isn’t helping.

It is actually an established scientific fact that your brain can process someone speaking (hear it and comprehend it) faster than the speed of normal conversation. That’s what makes it so easy to fall asleep during lectures, speeches, etc – too much time for your mind to wander between words and sentences. And why in some commercials you can understand people even when it sounds liketheyaretalkinglikethis. Anyway, I think my feeling that “writing” out loud when I’m driving seems too slow, cumbersome and limiting is related to this brain functioning phenomenon. So, I need a mind recorder to keep up with and capture my thoughts.