Story Idea Organization
As we hit the season of big writing challenges and you may be trying to decide what to write next or endeavoring not to be distracted by plot bunnies, it seemed like a good time to refresh an old (messy) post about my process for capturing, organizing, and prioritizing story ideas.
(P.S. Interested in participating in a fall writing challenge but not sure where to start? This post offers some alternatives to NaNoWriMo.)
Idea Receptacles
Inspiration can strike anywhere, so I have notebooks and other means of collecting ideas in all sorts of places. I have small notebooks in my purse and by my bed, another on my desk, and a note in my phone designated for collecting random ideas. I also designate a “story ideas” page whenever I start a new full-size, general-purpose writing notebook and jot down ideas there until it fills up and I have to start a new page.
These spaces for collecting ideas are not organized at all; any short snippet of a scene (no longer than a couple lines), line of dialogue, description, or name gets written down (or typed up) directly after whatever disconnected idea came before it. These spaces are for the sole purpose of capturing ideas so that they’re not lost, and organization comes in the next step.
Idea Filing
Every so often, I go through and copy the ideas from my assorted idea receptacles into a neatly organized document. This document has sections for
- characters
- settings
- titles
- random lines (single lines of dialogue, description, etc.)
- plot ideas
- names (for settings, characters, and objects)
- scenes/paragraphs
- and miscellaneous ideas that don’t fit anywhere else.
With these categories, it’s easy for me to find something if I want to start a new story with a particular element as its prompt, or if an existing story is missing something specific. If I want to prompt a story with a character, for example, I can reference the “characters” section of this document to find one who can lead the story. If I need a new side character for a work-in-progress, I can do the same thing.
Ideas are usually copied over from my main writing notebook whenever a “story ideas” page fills up; notes from other sources are copied in more sporadically. This document is also where I put notes on story elements that have to be cut from other stories–such as characters or settings that didn’t fit anymore but I still wanted to make use of later.
Idea Development
While my organized “writing adoptables” document has sections for scenes/paragraphs and for more comprehensive plot ideas, these sections don’t get a whole lot of use anymore. Instead, I’ve begun creating new Scrivener* projects for any ideas that have deeper or more specific notes attached to them, or ideas that are rattling around in my brain enough that I’m likely to need space for more notes pretty quickly. This also applies to ideas that have pieces in different categories, so I’m not sticking the main character of a story in the “characters” section, disconnected from the scene I’m keeping elsewhere in the document and the title I’ve already picked out for the story.
Starting a new Scrivener project gives me the space to begin fleshing out an idea with more depth and breadth, allowing me to keep its various pieces all in one place while still separating what I need to into different documents within the project. I can come back and add a note whenever one pops to mind, focus on fleshing it out for a bit when I want, and pick it right up wherever I’ve left off when I’m ready to start outlining and/or drafting the project.
*This is an affiliate link, which means a purchase made through it earns me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Idea Prioritization
The last step of taking an idea from “idea” to “project” is to add it to my project prioritization spreadsheet. This may happen as soon as an idea is big enough to warrant its own Scrivener project, or might not happen until I pick up the project for outlining/drafting, but from there I can keep track of a project all the way from the beginning to the end of the writing, editing, and publishing process and know where it falls on the priority list throughout that process.
The spreadsheet keeps track of how deeply developed an idea is, what draft it’s in, its current status in terms of activity (in progress, on standby, resting, etc.), and some other details I just like to make note of for my own use (like POV balance and general notes). This is great for record-keeping purposes (especially if you add columns for “date started” and “date finished”), knowing how many projects you have in total, choosing your next project, etc. The version you’ll get if you sign up below is stripped back to the essentials, but those essentials are 80% of my own spreadsheet and the template is highly customizable to whatever you want to keep track of.
Want to get your own copy of the project tracker I built and use? Sign up below to get access!
What does your idea-keeping process look like? What are your favorite tools for capturing and developing ideas? Comment below!