Words That Escape Us…

I can’t remember that person’s name, the name of that film, or the name of the medicine I’ve been taking.

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. People all over the world forget things. Words and phrases slip out of our minds, only to return half an hour later when you no longer care!

However, there are some simple tricks you can use to nail some of those slippery words and phrases into your brain, so they can’t escape!

The trick is to create a short mental video, and make it as comical or idiotic as possible. If you make it outrageous and completely personal to you, you will always remember it – now and for ever!

Let me explain by giving you a few of my own personal examples. They might not work for you, because they are images out of my own head

Once you understand the trick, you’ll soon be creating your own mental images.

1) The name of a band

There’s an amazing blues/rock band from Jacksonville Florida. I’ve listened to their music a lot on YouTube, but as soon as I wanted to tell someone else about them, of course, the name disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Here’s my mental video clip. I’m picturing a snowy scene. Over to the right of my vision is an igloo made from blocks of ice, with a little wooden door.

The door opens, and a small teddy bear steps out into the whiteness and crunches across the snow to a large delivery truck. The bear steps onto the footplate, opens the drivers door, and in a flash, the truck drives off into the distance.

The name of the band is the “Tedeschi Trucks Band” (Click the link to hear them play)

Here’s how I remember.

Teddy – Eskimo – Truck

The video clip in my head is always the same, it never changes.

2) Remembering a name

As a writer, I often need to explain to people that good writing is all about the editing. Ernest Hemingway was famous for saying that his initial work was rubbish and it would only emerge as great writing after many corrections and numerous drafts.

For some reason his name would escape me, so I devised a moving image in my mind to help me remember.

Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Old Man and the Sea” – a tale that featured a huge whale.

So, I imagine I’m standing on the shore. Out to sea I can see a cartoon whale approaching from the right-hand side of my vision. On top of the whale is a nest, and on top of the nest is an albatross.

This image in my mind is comedic, and the nest reminds me of Ernest. That’s all I need to remember his name.

If I had struggled to get his surname, I would have imagined the albatross wearing a coat and leaning over to sew up the hem of his coat – that would give me Hemingway.

As a say, this works for me because it’s my imagination. You will need to dig into your own creativity to produce images and mental videos that work for you.

3) The name of some antibiotics

I had a secondary infection after catching Covid at the beginning of 2020. I thought it was important to remember the name of the antibiotic I was given, in case somebody asked me at a later date.

Here’s the mental video I created.

I can remember the packet the antibiotics were delivered in. It was a longish white box with light green and pink wavy lines on it.

I picture the box growing larger and larger until it forms the side of the dock I’m standing on. In front of me is deep inky black water. Anonymous gray ships unloading their cargo with tall cranes, fill the background of my vision.

I turn and see a cyclist approaching at speed. He’s a guy dressed in brightly coloured lycra and pedalling like a maniac with his head down, and not looking where he’s going.

The rider and his bike plunge off the side of the dock and hurtle head first into the water with an enormous splash!

That vision allows me to remember the name of the antibiotic “Doxycycline”.

dock – cycle – in

How to Use This Memory Trick

it’s important to make your images and mental videos with plenty of detail so they become memorable.

Add colour, the weather, buildings and any details that make your mental videos stand out. Make them ridiculous. Make them comical. Make them scary.

Make things the wrong shape, the wrong size – perhaps a spoon that is too big to pick up, a bus that so small you can’t get in it. Make something grow bigger and bigger the longer you look at it.

And importantly, when you’ve created your mental masterpiece, run the video several times. Run it again the next day, and the next. This will fix it into your memory so you can recall it at any point in the future…

I hope this works for you – have fun with it!

Simon Bailey

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