Before You Write–Finding and Organizing Your Story Ideas

So, you’ve got a story idea, or a thousand of them flying around in your brain. Maybe one hit you in the head while you were pouring your lychee juice or perhaps you have been collecting them for months. Whether you are a pantser or an outline-it-to-the-deather, there are organizational tricks and tools to make your journey across the page easier. Managing information is something I struggle with, having been born with what I can only assume is a genetic anomaly that has left me with the organizational capacity of a very drunk chipmunk.

Thus, I have never had a fondness for organizing my materials before writing, or, to be transparent, for organization of any kind. It has been my tendency to sit down and let the ideas flow, feeling that somehow organization and regimentation will chase creativity away. I don’t know why I should hold so fast to these…