talkmagic.co.uk

It's occured to me that I'm forgetting lots of good stuff, tricks, slights and wisdom that others have kindly given me.

Anything I use I tend to remember but there are loads of other things that strike me as interesting but that would require future work to make it fit with what I'm trying to do.

I've just realised that a lot of these things I plain "forgotton", others I vaguely recall but cannot remember where I know it from, so it is a case of trying to remember the name of the thing (never my strong point) or the owner of the effect. I spend hours trying to google things like "the one where you have two black queens, one on the top and one on the face". You get lots of strange results back.

The time has come to drop the macho "I can just hold it all in my head".

Which brings me to the point of the post.

Has anyone else dropped into card indexes and filofaxes to hold their thoughts?
If so have they any tips?

Thanks.

I have what I have labelled my "Big Book of Ideas". In this I have written down the names of the tricks I know and the explainations of how to do them.
Also an ideas for tricks, routinings etc are all in there.

Not got a big enough reportour yet to need filing.

Try putting together an excel data base. You can then group your effects by name, auther, category, source, difficulty rating etc.

I've got a little red notebook which my boyfriend calls my 'Book of Spells' which I'm always jotting down ideas in.

Thanks folks. Nice to know that what I'm doing is needed by more than just me.

I think I'm going to go for a filofax format.

Just so I can take things out and move things round and screw them up and throw them in the bin...

<totally out of of this thread>

dammit. I was trying to reply to another thread...too many tabs open..sorry

Senior moment, Jericbilo?

Oh yes, I'm all too familiar with those senior moments. There is a fellow , named Gerald Edmunson over in Denton, TX who wrote a little text called the Ostrich Factor. In it he offers excellent suggestions for cataloging and remembering tricks, plus practice methods, rehersal, etc. Excellent little text think his website is :http://www.geraldedmundson.com/tof1/bookorder.htm
I've found his system excellent in helping this old man keep track of what I've learned and forgotten in over 50 years in magic.

yeah, i just use a humble old notepad...i keep notes of all ideas, you never know when one might interlap with the other...

i just keep the headings simple - effect/method/framework/fake explanations/ideas/wants list...

@photius

Thanks for the tip.
The book looks great, I've just ordered one.

Hopefully it will help (so long as I don't forget where I put it ) and in any case I'm a sucker for a good book.

I will tell you the best piece of advice you could have on this thread.

But I've forgotten what this thread is about now!

(Notebooks before you buy filofax or anything else. That way, you can have a few attempts writing things down EXACTLY how you want them. It's cheaper throwing rough drafts of notepaper awy, than filofax pages..)

You are probably right Darrel.

I've gone for cheap and cheerful to start with... and I'm waiting for the Ostrich Factor to arrive before cataloguing everything.

Also I read something from Eugene Burger about righting down a list of all the things you can perform properly. I realaize I've got ever such a short list. But writing it down helps me concentrate on getting some of the very lengthy "I can do this" list into the "I can perform it" list.

i have the same problem except i can't read my own writting wich is a pain.
so i usualy end up with a box full of mockups which i tend to dog around in and rework from time to time.