 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
|
Tracking Your Writing Ideas by John Vonhof If you are anything like me, you have more ideas than you can effectively track. Your files are filled with scraps of paper with notes scribbled in whatever color ink you happen to have on hand--maybe even crayon. Then there are the emails, napkins, pages torn out of magazines, and notes referencing a page in a book. They may be ideas for a children's picture book, a fiction or nonfiction book, a short story, or a magazine article. Way too many ideas to remember where they are, where they came from, and what you intended to do with them! I recently decided to take control of my files--and my ideas. My administrative side thought a project binder seemed like a good idea so I would no longer lose all my ideas. My creative side agreed. I took a one-inch binder, labeled it Ideas, and added some tabbed dividers. For my eclectic and diverse ideas, I decided to label my tabs for Children's Writing, Nonfiction, and Magazine Articles--my writing genres. A Miscellaneous tab is for all the ideas that don't seem to fit anywhere else. You could make tabs for poetry, fiction, and characters--whatever captures your writing style. Make the tabs reflect your writing and interests. Now comes the heart of the binder, the idea pages. I made a master file in my word processor and for each idea use this template as a starter. The master template has a title line, and the headers: audience, format, synopsis, special features, and sources. Choose a font size for each line and make them all bold. I use 18-pitch for the title and 14-pitch for the headers. Opening the template, I put the working title at the top, then drop down under each header and fill in the specific details for each idea. The plan is to capture the essence of your idea onto one page. Make your synopsis as long or as short as necessary to remember the idea. Then save the file with a unique name, in a folder called Ideas. Print a copy and add it to your binder under the appropriate tab. Add notes to the pages when something jogs your memory or when you find another piece to your idea puzzle. As you develop each idea, add pages as necessary. Review your Idea binder monthly. This will keep the ideas fresh in your mind and will help when you want to start your next project. It will also keep the ideas in your memory as you read newspapers and magazines and find another puzzle piece. Take the binder to critique group meetings where ideas can be shared for feedback and further development. You may also choose to add a section at the back of the binder for clips. I put mine into sheet protectors. This addition to your binder can be helpful when attending a writer's conference and wanting to share your credits with an editor or publisher. Sort them according to what is important for each conference. When ideas develop into full-fledged projects, take the pages and put them into a Project binder. A Project binder helps track individual ideas that are in final stages of development or completed. Each idea's query, book proposal and manuscript go under individual tabs. There will come a time when you pull an idea out of the Idea binder and focus on it fully. But you may also decide to throw it away. Better yet, give it to someone else. Maybe they will see where the idea is leading and bring it to fruition. This tracking system may seem simple, and it is. I value my ideas and even think some of them are winners. The binders help me keep track of the winners. |
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
© 2003 Footwork Publications, All Rights Reserved. Last Updated August 9, 2003 |
||
|
|
|