Hi Titanas,

I'm always curious how magic creators organize (and more importantly, find later) their ideas. One well-known creator I spoke to told me he would write ideas in a notebook, but wound up generating so many notebooks that going back to find one particular idea was almost impossible.

What system do you use, if any?

Thanks,

Ross

Dear Ross,
This is such an excellent question.
Back in the days where I was alone, it was very difficult as I was trying to keep notes of things I had in mind and most of these things were getting lost as I was filling a lot of notepads and computer notes unfortunately are not that handy for some psychological reason.
Now things are easier as I have my people. I design something and this goes immediately to a guy that develops and builds a prototype and test it, this guy then gives it to another guy that takes it and make sure that I ll see it when I have the time.
If everything goes as planned, then it moves to production and video production.
The notepads in a way have been replaced by people

Best regards,
Titanas

Hi Titanas,

Must be nice!

Whenever I get one of those idea moments that I want to find later (e.g. "this odd gadget I found in the hardware store might be useful for magic..."), the only thing I've been able to come up with is email the idea to myself with a descriptive title and enough key words in the email for me to hopefully find it in the future. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Thank you for your reply!

Regards,

Ross

This is a brilliant idea
You can acutally create a folder in your emails and forward that email to that folder, this way you know it will always be there
My problem though, I don!t know if I am alone in this, for some reason if its not on paper it doesn't quiet work for me.

Yes, I love the feel on pen on paper and real interaction you get with writing ideas down.Also, you can doodle little drawings to describe what your idea is. Seems more real to flip through a book of your ideas then just look at a folder in your computer. I like the hardbound ones you get with a rhino on them. Makes you feel like what you write in there better be worth putting into a book.

I use word documents and have different folders, such as "Routines" and "Inventions", etc. I then have folders within these folders, such as "Best" or different categories such as "close-up", "Coins", etc.
KJ

BTW, I also have one spreadsheet that is an inventory of all of my effects and I also use it to lay out sets, routines, and the props I need.
kj

Its true,
You can organize things better with a computer or tablet, as you can have photos, links, videos etc
I wish there was a way to include a video on paper

My little two -euro-cents on this... I've been knowing Titanas for some years now, and I have to say that every time I need to improve something in a routine, be it coins, cards, or mental of course, he is the one who thinks out of the box. He always finds ways perfecting anything he's shown, and only for this I'm happy to session with him. Now, I have myself wondered how he remembered everything he comes up with...

Thank you Phedon!!!
It's always a pleasure session with you too

Best regards,
Titanas

BTW, I just ordered Titan Finger. I have several of your other effects, but for some reason, not TF. I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for spending time here with us.

KJ

Awwww thank you