edit: my new site is here: https://thaumatorium.com/
For those that don’t know what a Spark file is:
It’s basically a file (be it in Evernote, Google Keep, or in my case: a MarkDown text file, stored in Dropbox for safekeeping) to dump random ideas in. Once those ideas are dumped, you can look at them at a later date to see if there’s any merit to them.
Because every time you’ve got a new idea, it’s the best idea in the world! The problem is that you’ve hyped yourself up with your own idea (“don’t get high on your own supply”) and you might not be able to see what may be wrong with it, so writing it down to look at it on a later date is the perfect way to self-critique.
Now, here’s how I control my ideas:
If I’m behind my PC, where I have access to my several *.spark.md files, I’ll just access them directly.
If I’m on the move, I’ll just either mail myself the idea, or dump it in Google Keep (on my phone), where I can move later it into the correct text file.
Why are they *.spark.md? So I can easily find them with Everything. I’ve got a shortcut (Alt+Z, under Options > General > Keyboard -> Toggle window Hotkey) to toggle the window and the setting to close the window once I’ve opened a file (Options > General > Results -> Close Window on execute).
I open the file with Visual Studio Code because of the amazing Extension support it has. I’m using markdownlint (for keeping a consistent MarkDown file), Markdown Preview Enhanced (to see how the file compiles) and English Support for LanguageTool (as an alternative for Grammarly, since they : 1. Don’t support anything else other than English, and 2. Have no extension for vscode). It’s a neato combo!
The things that I place in my spark files are usually about programming (little features that I want to add to this project that I’ve got in my head for the last… 5 years now? Ever since 2014, I believe. It’s meant to take on reddit, because reddit has slowly turned into a pleb-tier community with only shitty puns and retarded communities. If you’re clutching your perls because I used the word retarded: My site is not for you, because I don’t deem the word retarded as bad. It literally means “held back” and if you think that’s a ‘naughty no-no word’, you’re retarded too. Please do fuck off back to reddit. /rant)
Checking on those ideas now and then has given me a few well-supported ideas over the years. Can’t spill them here, because I want to eventually make money with them. :^)
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you because this process really helped me keep my ideas on paper in a somewhat structural way. I hope it will help you too.
PS: The Spark File is a blog post, originally from 2012: https://medium.com/the-writers-room/the-spark-file-8d6e7df7ae58 (if that link ever dies: It’s also available on web.archive.org), which is the source of this idea.
The Thaumatorium 