Idea Management: When It’s A Team Effort

Okay we already talked about how to organize your writing ideas and we’ve gone over the many ways in which you can keep track of them when you are away from your office. Now we are going to talk about different ways in which you can keep track of ideas while working on a collaborative writing project.

I’ve never worked on a collaborative writing project. I’m more of a solo artist myself. However, in speaking with other writers, I get the feeling that participating in a collaborative writing project is both fun and frustrating. Fun because bringing people together from different walks of life often offers fresh and humorous perspective on the writing idea as a whole. At the same time the frustration comes in because attempting to keep a bunch of creative people on track is a little like trying to herd cats. All but impossible.

While I can’t really help you with the cat herding thing, I can offer some ways of getting your group together for jam sessions as well as suggestions for keeping track of things when all is said and done.

Idea Management: When you are in the office

Last week we talked about a couple of ways in which you can capture your ideas as quickly as your highly developed imaginative minds can churn them out. Now we are going to talk about different methods of corralling those unruly puppies in your home office. Each of these systems will help you track both general writing ideas and specific works in progress.

1. The Notebook System

This system is perhaps the simplest way of keeping track of your ideas. All you need for this system are stacks of notebooks, a marker pen and empty space on your bookshelf. This was my system years ago before I got my first computer.

All I did was label each notebook with the aspect of writing that it concentrated on. For example, one notebook could be labeled “Characters”, another “Plots” and so on and so forth. Then it became a matter of transferring the notes from their temporary home in my pocket to their permanent home in the office.

One disadvantage of this system is that when I wanted to find something I had to flip through pages and pages of written text which, inevitably, took forever because I would get distracted from what I was looking for by thoughts of all that I could with the other ideas I was flipping past. Therefore if you have a computer, as I and most people do, I recommend the electronic version of this system.

Idea Management: Keeping Track of Ideas When You’re Away From Your Desk

As a writer I often find inspiration in the most unlikely places and, more specifically, at the most inconvenient times. I love my muse but sometimes she can be a flake. She will spark my creativity when I’m standing in line at the supermarket, or at work trying not to go insane or driving in my car swerving to avoid little old ladies that appear out of no where. (Where’d you learn how to drive grandma? Sears?)

Hardly ever am I inspired in a place where I can actually sit down and explore the ideas that come to mind. So today we are going to talk about different methods of capturing lightening in a bottle while the storm is raging or, in layman’s terms, recording those ideas the moment the light bulb goes off.