How do you keep track of your ideas?

When you come up with your ideas, do you typically have some specific markets in mind too? I put my ideas into a spreadsheet with a list of two or three (or more if I'm lucky) potential markets. They are in no particular order, just by date of entry. Then, when I complete an article on one of those topics and start submitting it, I can just transplant that info. over to my submissions spreadsheet and be ready for a fast turnaround in case of rejection by the first market.

The important ones, I just remember. The less important ones, maybe ideas for short stories or novels way down the road, I type out a sentence of the idea and save it in a Word document in a certain folder. I'm really anal about my word documents.

My ideas are disposable, so there is no sense in compilation of any one idea. I will have another idea today, and hopefully tomorrow. I can't speculate on the next fortnight since I have no idea which week this will occur.

I've run my ideas on my blog, which invites comments. The most popular ones are the ones that inspire me to give them a whirl.

Tri

I use scrivener to keep a writer's notebook on my iBook and I also carry around a small (3x2") composition notebook and pen. I like scrivener because it lets me keep everything together (little ideas, photo inspiration, sketches, tips, neat quotes etc.) and I can organize the bits into some meaningful system with tags so I can actually find bits later. I have it on my mac anyway for world building and writing, so it's nice to co-opt it for another use.

It's easy. I seldom have more than one idea each month.

rugcat said:

It's easy. I seldom have more than one idea each month.

Click to expand...

I have the same issue with sex, but I'm not keeping track.

So how do you guys keep track of all the ideas?

Click to expand...

I actually don't. I used to keep pocket-sized notebooks and write the ideas in them. But as I've cleaned up and organized, I looked through them and realized that I hadn't used a single idea from them. It made me realize that if the idea is worth something, I don't need to write it down to remember it--it'll stick with me.

If I ever do write my ideas down, I usually just write it all in an unorganized Microsoft Word document. If I even try to organize it, it growls and bites me and goes back to what it was doing.

So, I usually just let it be. ^^

I email them to myself and store them in a folder in email, or on yahoo notebook. I eventually transfer them to files in a folder on my computer.

I typically have three kinds of writing ideas: ideas for new novels; little skits, humorous dialogue, and such that could go in any story (if it fits); and ideas for my current projects.

I have ideas all the time at work, so I e-mail them to myself on my Yahoo e-mail acct.

I have folders in my yahoo e-mail that correspond to different WIP's and I have one named 'Misc'.

That way all my ideas are in one place, but organized too, and they're right there on the laptop where I do my writing anyway. So, it works perfectly.

I am incredibly (nerdly) organinzed when it comes to ideas. I went through a long period of not writing them down and thinking I'd remember, or writing them down in various notebooks then losing them. Now I use index cards and keep them in a photo box. On the index cards I've taped newspaper articles, written sentences I've heard, words I like, story ideas, character ideas, etc. When I need an idea I just leaf through the box and see if I can use anything. I'm constantly cutting articles out of magazines and newspapers.

JessRamage said:

(I used to try the idea of 'if it's a good idea, I'll remember' but my memory isn't all that great at the best of times. I can forget anything, even very important information, so I'm pretty sure I can manage to forget a story idea.)

Click to expand...

I have forgotten SO many ideas by thinking, I'll remember this one. I carry a little notebook in my back pocket with a pen. I write things down in that during the day, then transfer it to an index card and into my box later.

JessRamage said:

I sometimes wonder if I have a hole at the back of my head where things just leak out. For instance I know last night as I was at work I had an idea for a little part of the scene I'm editing right now in my fantasy WIP. Because I was in the middle of something, I didn't write it down, and now I have no idea what it was. Most annoying.

Click to expand...

I do the same thing. Sometimes if I can think back to what I was doing when I had the idea, I can piece it together and remember it. I had an idea in the car last week and didn't write it down. When I got home I kept thinking about where exactly I was when I came up with the idea (where on the road) and if I had passed something that triggered an idea. Finally I remembered.

JessRamage said:

I sometimes wonder if I have a hole at the back of my head where things just leak out. For instance I know last night as I was at work I had an idea for a little part of the scene I'm editing right now in my fantasy WIP. Because I was in the middle of something, I didn't write it down, and now I have no idea what it was. Most annoying.

Click to expand...

Ha! That happens to me all the time! When I'm studying with someone else for school, I'll be all like: "I swear this is important, I perfectly remember the teacher saying something about this is important. I just can't remember what, or even remember what this is supposed to be."

No advice from me here, I've tried virtually every method suggested in this thread and I still keep losing and forgetting my ideas. Sometimes, the method works until I forget what the method is.

JessRamage said:

Just interested to know what people's 'habits' are. I carry a notebook around with me and keep one by my bedside, but usually I tend to keep notes on my laptop whenever an idea hits me. I have a load of MS Word files in a folder called 'Writing Notes' but to be honest I'm not happy with that method, not that I can think of another at the moment. It's quite hard to find things again and I need to think of something descriptive to name the file, if I can't think of a title.

I did try to collate all the ideas into one searchable document but I can't find anything in that either, and through habit ended up going back to making individual files for each idea.

I suppose a card index thing might be a better idea, or something like that.

So how do you guys keep track of all the ideas?

Click to expand...

I have a file full of title ideas. Usually, when I get a title idea, I'll get a little idea for a plot, too, so I'll write down a few sentences under the corresponding title.

I also have an "idea" file. For some reason, I never fill it up. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I have no idea where any of my ideas come from or how many I've lost over the course of my writerly life. Huh, now I'll have to go dig up old notebooks, computer files, etc. looking.

One of my friends keeps everything in an accordion file. She has differet tabs labeled as so: fantasy, science fiction, mainstream, smut, miscellaneous. I think a card index would be a good idea, too, but only if you're hyper-organized. I know what would happen if I used the card index idea. At first, it would be neat and proper. But, over time, I'd forget to put cards in, or I'd write in pencil and the cards would get smudged. . . ugh, a disaster.

I have a special book for all my story ideas. Some times I come up with the entire story layout & spread it through a few pages, other times I just jot small stuff down.

Either way, I use my journal for that.

I like the Story Starts idea someone else says they use. I keep up with my notes in much the same way. I have sub headings for dozens of story start files. Files for kids, files for adults, files for troubled times, files for murders, files about weather, ghosts, folklore, pets, anything I hear and think I'll ever want to use. I make files for just about anything that strikes my fancy and I'm never without ideas when I have a project to do.

Organized into folders, things are easy to find when I need them. If an idea seems to be something I can use in different ways, I'll store it in several different files so if I need it, it'll be easy found.

When I first started this system, I had no idea how useful it would be. And how forgetful my mind is. Any time I go looking for story starts, I find things I don't even remember putting in, and inspiration hits brand new.

I learned a long time ago to reference where I get the ideas, because that thought often comes up. If it is something I need to check further, i know just where to go.

The story starts can be used to get ideas, and sometimes two or three made at entirely different times are all I need for a complete story. I would advise any writer to figure out some kind of suggestion like ths.