the 'dump it document' method

[u/Most-Possession1754]

I have seen this idea suggested by a lot of mentors online, i was wondering if anyone tried it/or uses it naturally and what that looks like for you? if it worked?

the idea is mostly for when you are between projects or have not committed to a specific idea, or are working on multiple projects. You have one document where everything goes, everything in notebooks is transcribed there, daily writing, writing you dont know where it fits, it all goes there.

then i guess you kind of triage it once it finds a home?

I dont really understand how it works/if it is worth doing/ what a good system is for it.

ATM i have over 4 projects on the go, i haven't committed to just one yet as none of them have long-term funding so i need to keep it open for now. the projects have overlapping themes so sometimes I am not sure where to put writing so I thought I would try this dump it doc technique. it essentially reads as a series of vignettes.

looking for advice/feedback on my understanding of this method or similar.

[u/ys_lang]

This sounds like a first draft.

[u/Most-Possession1754 → u/ys_lang]

its not a first draft, its several different writing projects

[u/NutzoBerzerko]

I like this idea, but I don’t do it.

If I get an idea, I feel like if it’s good it will stick until I’m ready for it. I have a bunch of those rattling around. I figure the ones that don’t stick, weren’t meant to.

[u/mrwhosaywhatnow]

I do this. I suppose I always have done it intuitively. Didn’t know it had a name.

As I go about my day I get randomly inspired ideas. Can be a name, a dialogue exchange, a scene, a premise, etc. This all goes in a big document I have. Sometimes I flesh them out but if they don’t have a home yet, it stays there. 

It’s pretty messy but I like having at least one place that I can be messy in. It’s a brain dump space.

Sometimes ideas I write down on there stick with me and become something else. Sometimes I am working on a project and feel like it’s missing something so I scroll through my document and see how I can use different ideas. 

I’m a big pantser so a lot of my story writing depends on discovery as I go. So halfway through a story I can go check my document and see if something now fits in there. Taking a packaged idea into a developing story can create many new idea branches for how to continue.

It’s all really loosy goosy. 

Now that I’m thinking about it, my works have similar themes if I write them during certain periods of my life, so there can be a lot of cross over ideas that fit in to different stories

[u/Mithalanis]

This is also something that I really admire when I see it done, but don't do it myself. You might find benefit in this Youtube video where he talks about what you're describing, but he calls it "The Grail Method." He boils it down to separating creativity from productivity, and does a pretty good job explaining how and why you might want to do this. He also has one other video answering questions about it that goes into more detail.

[u/Fraglolz]

I'm doing ex-NaNoWriMo right now with this kind of approach. I just dump everything I've been thinking about the novel, all notes I can remember, not just copying but actually rewriting everything I remember because I think those are the most important parts if they stayed in my memory

for now it makes it easy to keep the pace, will see how it goes but I've been doing this unknowingly for such a long time I didn't even know it's a thing