Storing Thoughts & Ideas: A Writer's Challenge

[Avichal]

I have many ideas and thoughts that I want to store. Many are insights about some particular topic.
Ideally I would want to write a book but that's too far-fetched (is this how writers get motivated to write books?)

I don't want to write in a notebook or something. I think it's temporary and I'll lose it.
Any ideas? Never thought I would face such a problem.

 

[Astronuc]

I have many ideas and thoughts that I want to store. Many are insights about some particular topic.
Ideally I would want to write a book but that's too far-fetched (is this how writers get motivated to write books?)

I don't want to write in a notebook or something. I think it's temporary and I'll lose it.
Any ideas? Never thought I would face such a problem.

Other than paper, one must rely on electronic media with redundant backup. Create electronic files on the computer, then periodically copy to one or more external hard-drives or optical media. Then store the HD/optical media in a safe place.

 

[ZapperZ]

I have many ideas and thoughts that I want to store. Many are insights about some particular topic.
Ideally I would want to write a book but that's too far-fetched (is this how writers get motivated to write books?)

I don't want to write in a notebook or something. I think it's temporary and I'll lose it.
Any ideas? Never thought I would face such a problem.

Have you never heard of Google Documents?

Zz.

 

[Avichal]

Of course I am looking for some software. Google Docs or something similar is okay but I want something different.
Is there anything that helps me store data in a tree-like structure?

P.S. :- Please move this thread to computer sub-forum as it probably belongs there.

 

[jim hardy]

Take a creative writing course in the evening. See how others do it.

 

[DennisN]

Other than paper, one must rely on electronic media with redundant backup. Create electronic files on the computer, then periodically copy to one or more external hard-drives or optical media. Then store the HD/optical media in a safe place.

That would be my advice too. For this I use USBs, rewritable DVDs and multisession DVDs.

Is there anything that helps me store data in a tree-like structure?

I'm pretty sure there is some dedicated software (but I don't recall any at the moment). Nevertheless, I personally think tree-like structures can be over the top (but it's just my opinion). For organized data, I make documents with table of contents and/or index - it's a kind of tree-structure. You can also go "weblike" and use a html-editor like e.g. Adobe GoLive, and create a treestructure with links and htmlpages (but it takes some time to learn, of course). Another, more "raw", solution is to create a treestructure with folders and files directly in the operating system. I sometimes do this (for e.g. organizing weblinks).

 

[russ_watters]

Of course I am looking for some software. Google Docs or something similar is okay but I want something different.
Is there anything that helps me store data in a tree-like structure?

Google: mind map software

 

[Avichal]

Google: mind map software

Mindmeister.com is pretty much what I wanted. It's not free though. Anyways, thanks for the 'mind map' keyword.

 

[DennisN]

Mindmeister.com is pretty much what I wanted. It's not free though. Anyways, thanks for the 'mind map' keyword.

I googled "free mind map software" and found this: Freemind. There might be more software, I didn't check all the search results.

 

[DennisN]

I think I struck some kind of gold here , check out

Alternatives to FreeMind

A lot of software options...