General note taking on story idea(s)

[Masronyx]

I am curious, what is the best way to keep track of all your notes on your characters, plot line, places, world, etc? How do you organize all of the notes/drafts for your stories? A friend of mine suggested using index cards. Right now I'm wanting to use a binder for each story, then use dividers for sections, (characters, places, outlines, draft, etc.)

I am curious as to how other people keep record and keep their ideas as organized as possible. I appreciate the input and advice.

[writeshiek33]

i use mynovel 4.0 a writing software MyNovel 4.0: Inspirational novel writing software for Windows for an unorganized individual like myself this a dream

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I just have a gigantic (56k words and counting) notes document that I manage in OpenOffice. It's got sections for characters, chapters, story elements (I tend to work out story problems by writing stream-of-consciousness analysis), and world-building, each of which are broken down into many sub-sections. It works well for me, but it might be overwhelming for some folks to have everything laid out this way.

[Telcontar]

I also just keep documents of notes. I only write down the fairly detailed stuff, though - I figure if I easily forget something I'd thought of, then it wasn't worth putting in in the first place. Sort of like a time-delay filter. If it's good enough to write, it'll be good enough to remember.

[Wormtongue]

I keep a section at the end of my WIP with my notes. Story outline, timeline, characters, places, misc. I also keep a small notebook on me at all times to jot down thoughts and ideas. I was just using it today.

Unlike Telcontar I am quite capable of forgetting even GREAT ideas, so I write it all down. If it looks as good when I read it next week then I'll use it. I guess you could say that's my version of the time filter.

[Sparkie]

I record notes in a rather stupid way, I think. I'll be sitting with my laptop in front of me to write, and I'll jot things down in a notebook or legal pad to the right side of my keyboard. I dunno. Whatever works, I guess. I make it harder on myself than it needs to be, really, especially since I have abysmal handwriting skills.

[Devor]

I keep a OneNote file on most things. It's kind of a neat program because of the way it's organized. I find it useful for the worldbuilding, less so for characters and plots.

I know people who have had luck organizing their work in PowerPoint the same way you would index cards. I've tried both but couldn't get my brain working that way.

[JCFarnham]

Combination of a Evernote notebooks, real note books, openoffice and Scrivener.

The dream is to condense that down to just Evernote and Scrivener for my next project.

[Masronyx]

I record notes in a rather stupid way, I think. I'll be sitting with my laptop in front of me to write, and I'll jot things down in a notebook or legal pad to the right side of my keyboard. I dunno. Whatever works, I guess. I make it harder on myself than it needs to be, really, especially since I have abysmal handwriting skills.

I learned a long time ago to keep a notebook for ideas. I tried to have one notebook for each story idea, but too many notebooks accumulated. Now I just have one for any idea that comes to mind, whether it's for this story or that one.

[Telcontar]

Used to keep a notebook. Now I just a Droid note app.

Also, does anyone else insert little reminders themselves in the actual story on read throughts? I forgot how often I did it until I opened up an older story and reading through it there were dozens of little bolded notes. Also, past me wasn't particularly helpful. One note read simply: "This sucks. Rewrite."