Writers Ideas
With a bit of solace from frozen Quantum’s
As writers, we can and do get our ideas from anywhere—sitting writing alongside the river at Dartmouth, overheard conversations in a coffee shop, absolutely anywhere.
I have a notebook with me all the time. If I haven’t, I have several note-taking apps on my phone, which is always with me. Notoriously, the cover of my current notebook has ‘I am a writer, anything you say or do may be used in a story’ on the cover. I love that notebook; I received it as a present from our neighbours a couple of Christmases ago. Sadly, I am coming to the end of it, but when I do, I may cut the cover off and stick it on the next one. I am competing for a premium handmade Japanese notebook worth over fifty pounds. If I win it, which is very doubtful, I have ideas about what to use it for.
OK, my notebooks are full of ideas, but YouTube sprung my latest idea the other evening. It’s an idea that could sit on the ‘back burner’ while I complete a couple of projects. But I will certainly keep an eye on the publishing market to see if a publisher would be interested in it when completed.
So, what was I watching then?
It was a program about Quantum computing. I have been aware of it, but I have not really taken the time to look into it. YouTube’s algorithm suggested it to me, and as it was presented by the mathematician Professor Hannah Fry, I thought that it might be worth a watch.
You may know how Quantum computing works, but I certainly don’t. At the risk of offending Professor Hannah or my old school buddy Professor William Lionheart of Manchester University, I’ll attempt my layman’s explanation as I understand it.
Our current computers work on one task at a time. Although we may think of them as multitasking, and they are often advertised as multitasking, they are very clever at moving quickly between tasks to make it seem like they are doing several things simultaneously, but they are not. Quantum computers, on the other hand, can undergo very many calculations at the same time. Whereas the many thousands of bits in our current computers are either on or off, Quantum Bits or Qubits can be held in a state of Superposition, on and off simultaneously. That’s how physics works down at the atomic level.
Has that fried your brain? – It has mine
Quantum Computers can’t perform calculations better than Supercomputers just yet, primarily because the Qubits have to be kept at just above absolute zero.
So, that’s the basis for an idea. Incidentally, when I was walking Murphy earlier, I saw a potential character, too. I have that description in my notebook now.
Writers’ notebooks are full of ideas, and take heed of what is in front of mine. If you’re in a coffee shop, restaurant, or any other public place and you see someone scribbling away in a notebook, they are likely a writer.
That’s the basis for my idea. I will need to outline it in OmniOutliner before I store it away for a while. Incidentally, when I was walking Murphy earlier, I saw a potential character, too. I have that description in my notebook now.
Writers’ notebooks are full of ideas, and take heed of what is on front of mine. If you’re in a coffee shop, restaurant , or any other public place and you see someone scribbling away in a notebook – they are more than likely to be a writer.
