The Digital Pensieve

"Of course you can't have it all! Where would you put it?"

So storing my idea has been something that I have been conscious of for a very long time. I have short term memory issues that make it difficult for me to remember anything but the present moment, so I learned very early on that getting a storage system together was going save me a lot of embarrassment.,

Habit is a strong second to that, especially the habit of putting things in my storage places. I have been chasing organizational systems for decades, building and adapting them to suit my needs. Nothing ever sticks though, not permanently. So what is a writer to do?

Introducing Google Drive.

I have had a series of voice recorders, and I though I have tried other ways of capturing my thoughts, that is the one I keep falling back on. It is simple and effective and can store my thoughts pretty much indefinitely.

I basically just start the recording with a reference to what it's going to be about. If it is a note or a task, I start by saying Note. If it is part of a book or series, I will start with the name of the book and then recording my ideas.

When it comes time to sort and store them, I just listen to the first few seconds to figure out what it is, then rename it, usually retaining the date and time to keep them organized and to watch the development of ideas.

The I drag the voice files into their respective folders on Google Drive, This means that at any given moment, the are stories with several voice notes just waiting to be heard. I have close to a hundred story ideas. Not all of them will be written of course (no one has that kind of time) but at least they are out off my head and waiting rather that bugging me with thoughts that I should try to remember but ultimately don't.

What does this have to do with the chapter? Well, I have set up set of folders under my WIP main folder on Google Drive, which I will use to store the physical/digital results of my work through the workbook.

This blog will start using the appropriate tags to chorale the posts that all relate to the same subject, but they will be more about my impressions and feeling about the exercise rather than the content.

It's another system. I hope I can stick to it.