How do you store your novel ideas?

RSwordsman said:

A folder on my hard drive, with a separate text document for each idea. 99% of them will probably never be written, but they're there if I want them.

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Same here. Potential titles, characters, plot bunnies, and genres. They're there. Maybe they'll get developed and written out. Maybe.

They're stored in my head too. For a good bit.

robjvargas said:

I use Microsoft OneNote. I can create a tab for each idea with notes, links to resources, if I start work, I can link to the Word document (and vice versa).

It's an addictive little app. And just became free (minus a few features most probably wouldn't have used anyway).

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I do the same. Once I realized all that OneNote could do, I never went back. Love it for keeping ideas, research, etc organized. I use Scrivener for my writing but OneNote for everything else.

A notebook currently. Before I picked one up, it would be on any scrap of paper I happened to have nearby (which is not great when much of that paper is class work).

Unfortunately, my handwriting is really awful so I can spend a long, long time figuring out what I was trying to write. I should switch onto the computer for notes.

I once started a story - one line only - which had a great premise (I think). But I wrote nothing more than that sentence, and when I went back to it a few years later I had no idea what I'd intended to write - I still don't. So I started saving every idea and every starting sentence, just in case I found it later and wanted to actually write it. I save each one as its own Word document, including any info on where the story was going or what else might happen in it, and keep it in a folder called story ideas.

I doubt I'll ever go back to any of them, but they're there if I want to. And sometimes I read through them and go oooh, what a great idea... Not that I've ever picked one up and run with it. One day maybe hehe

A word document.

I carry a small moleskine type notebook around with me for story ideas and a larger one for notes/dialogue/description for my current WIP.

I used to carry one of those pocket-notepads around and write down stuff whenever it came to me. I've since found, though, that it's easier to just use the Notes app on my iPhone.

I keep story ideas / research in many places. There's physical stuff in notebooks, single pages, 3 x 5 cards, loose sketches and sketchbooks, newspaper and magazine articles scribbled-on in the margins, and printed docs. Enough that I have three of those big clear plastic utility boxes from Home Depot just filled with story notes.

I've gradually been digitizing them, so they can join the large numbers of Word files I have of slightly-more-finished stories.

I keep a lot of stuff in my head, but recent memory issues with friends (and the fact that I'm pushing 50) have made me aware this is not secure from loss. So I'm trying to at least type out additional notes for projects. I'm not completely joking when I say it's for my heirs, all of whom write, too.

Journaling taught me to write notes - they can always be strip-mined later. I'm finally making money off ideas I first wrote down two decades ago. Some of it is for a huge story arc I've been playing with as a hobby for years. Some is for one-off pieces. In most cases, the idea was better than my writing skill at the time, so I had to catch up.

Layla Nahar said:

In my head. If the idea is good it will wait till I've finished my current project. If the idea disappears, how good could it have been in the first place. If I can think of title to go with an idea that helps a lot.

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Good story ideas can disappear simply because of the hectic daily routine most of us keep. It has little to do with their relative value. Like the other posters, I store mine in folders on my computer. It's amazing how many of them seem fresh and new after only a couple of months. In the meantime, my subconscious mind has been working them over, getting them into shape.

OoC

saizine said:

I keep a massive (and ever-growing) TextEdit document and store anything there. Vague ideas, lines of dialogue, possible conversations, funny comments I've overheard, lone sentences I like but don't fit with my current project, that sort of thing.

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Same! I call mine 'running notes' (where are they running? to whom? and why?)... Was over the moon once when I read in a book somewhere that the Coen brothers do this too. (As I'm sure a lot of writer/directors, but that just made me smile.)

Notebooks. I prefer to sketch out ideas for new stories by hand. My current scribbling pad is the girliest piece of stationery you ever saw; a pale shade of lilac, embossed with flowers and featuring a delicate decorative purple ribbon on the front. Not really in keeping with the blood splattered demon inhabited contents, but I always like to imagine some nosey bugger picking it up thinking it's a 12 year old girl's super secret diary and then reeling away in horror going "Dear God! My eyes! My eyes!"

I do like many others, whenever an idea pops into my head i drop it in a word doc and put it in my writing folder on my desktop. After I finish my current WIP hopefully there will be something there that will inspire me on to something else...

I don't store my ideas. I've found they have a very short shelf life and tend to go rancid and moldy, causing a horrible odor.

So now, if I don't write the actual novel, I leave the idea on the vine to either ripen or wither away.

In my head. No, really I do. I might jot down interesting names or planets or aliens, but I don't write ideas or plots or anything until I'm ready to begin. The great thing is that I may have an idea in my head about the next novel while I'm working on my current. But when I am winding down my current, my creative juices begin to flow for the next one. It's a natural process for me. Now, I'm current reworking my second novel now. My writing is improving thanks to advice from this group and just me continuing to work on it.

In a big jar filled with formaldehyde. Excellent at preserving dead stuff.

caw

I keep a Word Document on my laptop of interesting titles and story ideas. Sometimes they're quotes from poems or just an interesting piece of imagery. Titles can generate some interesting story ideas all on their own, so I keep them there, too.

I have a whole bunch of random documents with just scenes, or ideas typed out. They're in a folder I never even took the time to label. So it reads "New Folder" and most of the files are titled whatever date I came up with it.

I actually do go back and reread them often, the novel I just finished is actually one I wrote one scene for three years ago and then forgot about it.

I keep all my ideas in individual boxes, just like my victims... Mwah ha ha...

When I run out, I use notepad.

I actually carry around note pads most of the time...

But some ideas just stick with me indefinitely.

I store my ideas and notes in Evernote. Best software ever!

I have been saving ideas in Google Keep. I have a note for each possible project and they are color coded. This is probably not the most efficient method, but it's on my phone and syncs with the website automatically. I like that I can search notes and insert timers for reminders.

Scrivener for notes, pictures etc. but Google docs for actual work until it goes into my Scrivener file.

elinor said:

Scrivener. I keep a primary file where I list all stories and story ideas as small pitches/a single sentence or one line, that more or less encompass all the important stuff for myself, so I can remember it when I can get to it. I keep novel length ideas in one list and short stories in another.

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I've been hearing a lot about Scrivener. One of my ghostwriting clients recommended it and I've been curious about it since. Would you recommend it? Is it better to use on a Mac or on Windows?

To answer the original question:

I store all ideas on Microsoft OneNote (which is awesome). I was using Evernote before, but I found OneNote more dynamic when it came to being able to use images in notes and stuff like that. All my character profiles, synopses, etc. are on OneNote - as well as image pegs for homes, places, people, etc.

I stored them in my head until I hit my late-30s, then my memory chased my metabolism down some dark alley and I haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them since. So now I write basic ideas down on a folded up piece of paper I keep in my breast pocket.