Skip to main content

Index Your Ideas Today (You'll Be Glad You Did)


As a writer, your brain pelts you with ideas on the daily. Every stranger, every mundane event, and even everyday objects can spark something in that overactive imagination of yours. You get ideas at the most inconvenient of times, like when you're driving or dealing with other people.


Wait, does that not sound like you? Do you have a grand total of zero ideas coming at you for most of your life, but then every once in a while you're blessed with a single blindingly brilliant concept?

Regardless, you need a way to manage the ideas you get and spreadsheets are boring. That's where we come in. Read on to discover how we create databases from which to pull inspiration for our myriad writing projects.

Megan gets down her ideas by...

Let's all take a second to remember that I am not the most organized person on the planet. I do try to be, to which my abandoned planners and calendars and weird bullet journal hybrids can testify. What this means is I'm constantly switching out what I carry on a daily basis. Dozens of notebooks in every size have spent time in my purse, all with half-baked thoughts.

Sometimes I don't have my purse or I'm just about to burst with an idea, so I interrupt the conversation I'm having with an actual human and tell Siri to take a note for me. This is probably my most common form of idea-capturing, but again, it doesn't lend itself to an easy access when I'm hungry for inspiration. It's also organized by date, and how the heck is that helpful?

But there is one constant in my organizational schemes, and that constant is Google Keep. I'm a sucker for Google's suite of productivity apps to begin with, but Keep just works so well for what I've always wanted in an idea organization system: color-coding, tagging, checklist-making, you get the picture. When I've got a spare hour and my laptop's handy, I open all my other apps, gather all the scraps of paper at the bottom of my purse, and start transferring everything with one iota of potential over to Google Keep.

Jessica gets down her ideas by...

I’m equally not the most organized person in the universe. The one thing I know I’ll always have on me is my phone. Before I had a phone, I had ideas half jotted down in notebooks and doodled on the back of class assignments.

Since graduating college, I’ve gone mobile, as in my ideas are now put mostly into the notes section. I use iCloud because it’s easy to access across devices and syncs up with my computer with no hassle. When I get too many, I move them into a document. I keep an ideas document, labeled and on the cloud so I can access it any time I’m start thinking about an idea. What happens next? Absolutely nothing. This is where most of my ideas go to spend the rest of their eternity.

Sometimes though I’ll start thinking back to those ideas. I’ll hunt down the original one, copy it into another document, and start working on it. Sometimes these ideas have nothing come of them, sometimes I’ll keep working on them. When nothing happens, I’ll put them back into the ideas document or I’ll move them into a folder of old ideas if I have enough invested in them. Someday I might revisit them, but I never know.

More Suggestions We Love (But Just Don't Use)

Some other great places that you can use to record your ideas, but we personally don't use are....
  • Word processors, like Microsoft Word
  • Post-It Notes
  • Dry-erase boards 
  • Index cards on cork board
  • Trello and other apps (we’ll probably have a post on this eventually, right?)
  • Small notebook that you can keep on your person
How do you get your ideas down? Do you have a system you use to keep track of them? Let us know by commenting below and make sure to subscribe so you can get the latest posts.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Local Places to Plan a Writer’s Retreat

When you’re looking for a local place to write, you might just say that you could go to the coffee shop. After all, they’re easy to find and most are set up for writers to spend hours on end there. But sometimes you want to get a change of scenery and explore something different. Changing locations can help you when you get writer’s block or it could give you some new inspiration. So if you find yourself looking for a new or unexpected place to write during Camp NaNo, here are seven other local spots you can venture. Local Spots: Libraries Bookstores Hotels Friend’s house Nature spots Malls Aquarium, zoo, museums, historical sites, local attractions Libraries Most libraries have tables and chairs that you can work in. Some have computers that you can use if you’re a cardholder. Some even have power if you opt to bring a laptop. Libraries are quiet and most people won’t try to bother you while you write. Most you can have access to wifi as you work. Best of all, t
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Readercoin?

Haven’t so many of us wished to get paid to read? Readercoin seems to be the answer to those prayers. Readercoin is a new app that lets you earn its eponymous cryptocurrency by listening to and reading books. I'm so enamored with this app that I just  had  to share it with you all. It's perfect for someone like me, who has a demanding schedule and little time to read for pleasure. Cryptocurrency? You know, like Bitcoin, except this isn't Bitcoin. It's a currency that's generated by the time you spend reading and listening. I am not, nor do I pretend to be, an expert on how it works. I refer you to the FAQs for that. What I can tell you cryptocurrency can be exchanged for rewards like Amazon gift cards or PayPal at a usual exchange rate of 1,000 Readercoins for one US dollar. For most people, that's probably just as good as cash (and it's almost definitely the closest as you're ever going to get). You also have the option of donating your R
Post a Comment
Read more

Beating Writer's Block

It’s every writer’s worst nightmare. It creeps suddenly into your mind until it’s all you can think of, stopping the flow of any creative juice you have. Writer’s block - a writer’s number one enemy. People can tell you a thousand ways to try to beat writer’s block, but in order to actually do so, you have to find what works for you. For some people, that’s going back to the drawing board, reworking the plot from the beginning. Some people flee from their writing, seeking refuge far away. If you do a search on the Internet, it’ll yield resumes like “go for a walk” or “create a routine.” Think Small What I like to do when I have writer’s block is start short. I find prompt generators for short stories or work on scenes from shelved WIPs (works-in-progress, for those who don't know) until something in my brain starts flowing again. I keep a main WIP folder on my computer so I can go right to my project or avoid it if I’m blocked on it. That keeps my project in the front of
Post a Comment
Read more