Organizing Gibberish Thusly

/ Ally Bean
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First leaf with Autumn color says, “Look at me!”

THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN SORTING through my desk drawers and my computer files.  I save lots of ideas, either scribbled on bits of paper or quickly typed on computer sticky notes.

I keep these ideas as prompts just in case I need something to write about here.

Like today.

MOST OF MY SAVED ITEMS are snippets of thoughts that float through my mind while I’m doing something else, so they’re not fully formed ideas.  In fact, they are generally pure gibberish.

But I continue to believe that one of these saved items will be the best idea ever, so I’m reluctant to throw any of them away– until I do.

I could be deluded, of course.

[Rather like Gayle King and her massive purse + jewelry collection, featured in O magazine this month.  It’s a collection so unwieldy that it required an outsider to sort through it, culling out that which no longer serves her.]   

[Alright, maybe my little pile of ideas is nothing like Gayle’s purse collection, but you get my drift.  Too much of anything is confusing.]

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Underwhelming decorative Summer grass says, “I’m not dead yet!”

I WON’T BURDEN YOU WITH a list of my half-formed ideas.  I respect your time and sanity, my gentle readers.

But I just wanted to let you know that I’m still moseying along the blogging trail.

Tossing and deleting the gibberish as I go.

31 thoughts on “Organizing Gibberish Thusly”

  1. Your “half-formed” ideas are likely better formed than most people’s best formed thoughts. And perhaps I should have formed that thought better in my mind before typing it.

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    • philmouse, I agree about that leaf. It bugged me when I saw it. As for the decorative grass, I’m not sure what its problem is. All of its neighbor grasses are growing tall, but this guy is half here all the time.

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  4. I keep those sticky notes too. My problem is that they are so cryptic that I have no idea what I meant even an hour later. I need one of those old fashioned tape recorders but then I wouldn’t want to wade through the rubbish. Look at it this way. It takes real skill to make a good entertaining post our of gibberish!

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  5. I have a similar list. I drop ideas when they no longer feel pressing or interesting — or once I realize I can no longer remember what my gibberish-y note meant!

    Except for the one: “something about claiming a dragon. because dragon.”

    Do I remember what this means? Not a clue. Does that mean I’m going to delete it from my list? Hells to the NO.

    Because DRAGON.

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    • Alice, I love that note! None of mine where that interesting because… NO dragon in them.

      [Although I did have one that said: flirting with the holy spirit. Am totally clueless about what I meant with that idea!]

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  6. I too, have notes here and there with things to remember to tell someone or myself, just to do lists, and ideas I’ve seen on the TV or computer. The problem is that they are everywhere. I need to put them all in one place at least. It’s the way I stay sane!

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    • Beth, I toss all my paper ideas into drawers in my desk. One drawer for blog ideas. Another drawer for house ideas. And so on. I don’t know that I’m much more organized because this, but at least all the ideas are in one room! It’s a start.

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  7. Oh…I still need a desk. That’s really the onliest thing I miss about retiring from teaching. I NEED MY OWN DESK. Not a spot at the table, not a lap desk (I have that; it’s not a Desk.), not a cleared spot at the huge hulking thing in the home office that is just…not Mine.

    Nance’s Christmas List: 1. A Desk.

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    • nance, I was desk-less for years when we first moved into this house. Then a few years ago I just up and demanded a desk of my own with drawers + pretty handles on the drawers. Highly recommend it. Every writer needs a space of their own.

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  8. Like you, I have ideas scattered about my home. My problem is I need a better system. They’re on sticky notes, Word documents, notes in my phone, voice recordings in my phones, scribbled on my medical journals on my dresser. Oh boy, I must really do better.

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  10. I write quotes and poetry on little scraps of paper and then sometimes find them years later. I consider it a gift since they are often inspirational and just what I need to read.

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    • Zazzy, it’s taken me years to realize how I need to save ideas. Now I need to start having better ideas, I guess. Although saving gibberish is its own kind of fun…

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  13. I tend to be a saver. I write things on scraps of paper to deal with later. Then I come across them and wonder what was this for? 🙂 I’ve created an idea folder for any story ideas. Just so they are saved in one place. I was going through my desk and dresser today tossing out things I didn’t need. It was hard but it felt good.

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    • Kourtney, I save stuff for a while, but then the mess starts to make me confused so I’ve learned to toss aside that which doesn’t make any sense to me. I figure that if an idea was really meant to be, it’ll come back to me at the right time & place.

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