I come up with ideas for scenes, books, or series on a daily basis. Some of them are really terrible, but some of them are keepers.
That is a Very Good Thing.
A writer who only has one good idea is a sad creature indeed.
That is also a Very Bad Thing.
Why? Because I don’t have TIME to write them all. I don’t. I can’t. I couldn’t possibly. I can barely juggle the two webserials and one novel that I’ve got on my plate now. The swarm of ideas tantalizing me will simply have to wait their turn.
Unfortunately, I lose a lot of good ideas that way. They don’t keep tickling after they’ve been snubbed. Sometimes they leave in a huff and sometimes they fade away, until all that remains is a ghost of a scent, like a whiff of perfume in a room once visited by royalty.
It doesn’t have to be that way. I can have my cake and eat it, too.
My idea box method is still under construction, but I’ll share its development thus far.
Idea Box Method
- Have an idea. This one’s easy; it happens all the time.
- Recognize the idea. This one’s not so easy, but it’s vital. Overhear an interesting conversation in a restaurant? Stop and REALIZE that aspects of that conversation or those people might be a great plot device.
- Record the idea. Do you keep a note-taking device (pencil/paper, phone, recorder, etc) with you at all times? Why on earth not? Scribble your idea down NOW, while you have it. It may or may not be useful later, but sifting through all those ideas isn’t your job now. Now, you just need to write it down. Mental notes are notoriously awful places to store important information.
- Categorize the idea. Is it a line, or a character, or a scene, or a book, or an entire world?
- Have somewhere that you store ALL of your ideas. I call mine an idea box, but in reality, it’s a wiki. I could see it being a folder of documents on a computer or thumb drive, and I could see it being a physical notebook or set of notecards. Whatever works best for you, but notes strewn throughout your homework, kept in various email inboxes, or scribbled on bathroom walls are notes that might as well be lost forever. One central repository, that’s key.
- Separate your idea based on the categorization that you use and note it down in your idea box so that you can find it later.
My Idea Box Organization
My idea box has a single page for random characters, a single page for random lines, a page for miscellaneous ideas that might incorporate lines/characters/scenes, separate pages for each scene, and sometimes entire tree structures for books/worlds, depending on how vivid my idea was. I rarely spend more than ten minutes writing down or fleshing out an idea.
The most recent addition to my Idea Box is filed away under ‘Miscellany’. It is about a woman who calls a stray cat (who is actually a shapeshifter) Impertinence J. Tomcat. That’s it. That’s all the idea is. I don’t have time to develop it into something more meaningful for now, so I’m storing the seed away for later use. That initial spark – the thing I fell in love with or that ignited my curiosity – that’s the important bit, anyway.
The Spark Is All You Need
“Why did I love this idea?” As long as you wrote down enough to answer that question, you’ve got all you need to build a roaring creativity fire later.
Summary
As you grow and develop as a writer, the details of how you flesh out an idea will change. As long as you keep your idea box, though, you need never lose an idea again. Inspiration can come at the strangest times and in the strangest places (and often while you’re too busy to give them your full attention).
Don’t let those ideas escape!
Do any of you have “Idea Boxes” of your own? What do you do when you’re in the middle of one project and an idea for another one starts tossing pebbles at your bedroom window?
I currently use google docs as an idea-box of sorts – though I’m trying to transition back to pen and paper notebooks, since I am distrustful of the Cloud (which isn’t really working, since the Cloud is so much better at this stuff)
As it is, when I have ideas, I start up a random document with the idea and save it, and see if it percolates into anything – they all get tagged with “writing stuff” and stuffed in a folder so that I can find them later.
The part I’m not good at is recognizing the ideas – since frequently my story ideas pop into my head as phrases/sentences/entire paragraphs of words that won’t get out of my head until I write them down, it can be hard for me to recognize the smaller things, like characters and plot ideas as opposed to descriptions or actual written stuff.
I think that’s why I struggle with plot – my brain thinks in tediously verbose descriptions XD
@Anna
I use googledocs for a lot, but I’ve scaled back on it recently. Not because of distrust of the cloud, but rather impatience. Googledocs has too slow of an interface for me.
Paper is where I used to keep my ideas, but the lack of the FIND function in them gives me no end of grief. (I also sometimes miss minimaps when in large stores, too. I miiiight spend too much time in the computer. *laughs*)
Personally, I couldn’t imagine someone calling your writing “tediously verbose” =]
Excellent post! I am struck with ideas at the oddest of times. Sometimes I have to keep reciting the idea in my head until I can get it down somewhere. I’m still working on making sure to GET it down somewhere, no matter how small or silly the idea might seem.
I do need to organize this better. Currently I have some word documents, blog drafts, scraps of paper, and notes on my iPhone – they are everywhere! Oh and sometimes I’ll email myself the idea…
I’m glad I haven’t taken to writing my ideas on bathroom walls though – someone might steal those! “For a good time, write about…”
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@Syrana
I’m still working on pretty much all of that. Recognizing AND writing down. I’m getting slightly better, but it’s still a new habit that I’m trying to form. We can learn it together!
Yikes! You definitely need some organization! I recommend pbwiki if you don’t want to self-host a wiki solution. They’re easy to use, free, and require a login to view.
Wikis are good for this sort of thing because they have no inherent structure. Since everyone thinks differently, it’s an easy way to build your organization around the way YOU think, and it’s easy to edit and change later.
I steal story ideas from bathroom walls all the time. Amazing how much drama happens in the third stall of the local 7-11.
OneNote is awesome for this kind of stuff. I really wish Google had a version since they aren’t compatible at all but OneNote does provide apps and things for mobile phones so you can jot stuff down in your Notebook via mobile web.
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@Tristina
I’ve heard good things about oneNote, and I think Steve Hall uses Evernote, too. Since I write on an office-less mac, OneNote won’t work for me, but there are plenty of similar apps for macs, too. =]
Well, I cannot contribute on a personal note. I think I gave up on ideas of my own about sixteen years ago.
But I have boxes and files for all the ideas that are generated in the home. There are notebooks filled with drawings and sketches. Idea and project folders. Boxes of notes and papers that include music lyrics and compostitions. Tapes and recordings of songs. I have the original sketches that the kids drew for the flower garden and vegetable garden out back. Those are pretty adorable, as the kids were pretty young.
I have no idea what, if any, organizational system Bob has. There have been times that I woken up in the morning covered in paper, sketches and pencils. Maybe I look like a filing cabinet when I am asleep? But I have been put in charge of keeping a file on the computer of Bob’s work, including pictures of his art and work benches he has built and even some of his sketches. But I am just the back-up for him.
Jacob has taken over keeping track of his own stuff and his system is mysterious. It looks like a pile of stuff, but it works for him. He does keep a notebook for his engineering ideas, though.
Nick could give all of us classes on staying organized. I am not sure how his brain works, but it seems to me that a few years back when Nick was writing “books,” he fleshed out the table of contents and then just sat down and wrote out his stories. There is a LOT in that brain and it works overtime, so he must have had all his ideas ready to go, but no telling.
My big ideas now include what to have for dinner on Wednesday. That is just paper and pencil and I rarley get inspired with new ideas while listening to someone else’s conversation. And my life is a constant barrage of other people’s pebbles at my window interrupting my big thought on meatloaf or roast??!!
I’m usually fairly low-tech with mine. I keep a series of notebooks (black composition and/or spiral) and 3-ring binders for ideas (depends on when I came up with it and for what). I spend some time flushing the ideas out while I’m feeling frenzied and then periodically go back and fill things in as they occur to me. I might email myself if I don’t have proper writing instruments handy, but then I go write it down in a notebook afterwards.
@Anne
I should be very surprised to find that you look like a filing cabinet at any point, awake or asleep.
I spend a lot of energy (obviously not as much as a Mother of Three!) thinking about what to cook for dinner, grocerying, and cooking. I think that still counts as an idea. Although most of my ideas are “Add some onion to it!” or “Maybe sprinkle some cayenne in there!” and, more recently “This could use some diced apple!” so I don’t know if that’s actual creativity so much as a desperate and pitiful attempt at it.
@Brad-o
Somehow, this surprises me not at all. Do you have time yet to actually develop any of your ideas? I know work had you in a stranglehold for a few years there.
@Tami
Define “develop”. ;) I can usually make time and I’ve certainly gotten more time lately. Nowadays I’m just tired when I come home. But, I do make some scatershot progress on random projects here and there, from story ideas to programs to random projects around the house. Only the house projects get completed lately. ;)
@Brad-o
*laughs* House projects getting completed is good, though, and I’m sure Brooke appreciates that, too. Still, I’m impressed that you get as much done on your ideas as you do. I think that’s awesome. =]
Found this today. Lots of comments on specific tools.
http://designbygravity.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/methods-of-work-it-didnt-happen-if-you-didnt-record-it/
@Brad-o
Wow, that’s a fanTAStic link! Thanks!
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[...] Idea Box Things > that come from your idea box are likely to be slightly more fleshed out to start with than a brand new idea. For me, those ideas have keywords I can use to remember them. “Keystone” “Stained” and “Taven” on my list are examples of Idea Box ideas. [...]