Fodder for an ideas file.

Painters often sketch out an image before picking up a brush; writers keep an ideas notebook or file. Some ideas will never reach publication; others need time perk or macerate. Many go back in the ideas file or writers notebook to revisit on another day.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, American novelist and short story writer, Lauren Groff, described a painfully inefficient but creative process before her ideas for a novel get off the ground. She works on several projects simultaneously, each of which occupies a different corner of her studio. When she is energized by a new idea, she can spend as much as a full month sketching out a storyline long-hand on yellow note pads. She never goes back to reread what she has written on the yellow note pads. Sometimes she stops there. If she is still excited about the idea, she starts all over, still writing out her ideas long hand.

Academics under pressure to publish could never afford such an investment in labor that may or may not yield a new idea or publication. The similarity lies in the investment in an ideas notebook or file for ideas that seem brilliant at first, but then do not seem to go anywhere. Some of these simply need more time, thought, or research.

An ideas file has another advantage. It gives you a place to dip into when you are fresh out of new ideas!