A while ago, Marie told me an old proverb: the faintest ink is better than the best memory.

I’m usually not much for proverbs. Most quotes that stick with me are from mediocre movies. But this one really stuck with me, and I’ve trying to integrate this thought into my life more, whether it’s taking notes at meetings or making maps of video games.

With that in mind, I’ve started a little wiki of sorts for Tinselfly (massive spoilers will eventually make their way there, if anyone cares). I’ve still got a long way to go, but the idea is to write down every decision I’ve made about the characters and story and whatnot, because there’s really a lot just sitting in my head that’s never been written down, anywhere.

I probably have more discarded, forgotten ideas related to this project than I could possibly write down. And while it’s important to cut and change things, I would like a record of what’s been changed and why. Might be good to have.

* * *

One of my biggest concerns with anything project like this is being precious about it. While this project is, of course, important to me, I don’t ever want to find myself in a situation where I’m so enamored of a particular idea that I’m unwilling to step back and evaluate its fitness for inclusion in my final product.

You’d think that getting all this stuff out of my head and into a more permanent, public location would cement these ideas in my head, and it would become harder to fight that preciousness, but the reverse has happened. Seeing these ideas written down, and re-reading them helps me with that evaluation process.

Like my approach to my journal in general, sometimes you have to write something down so you can realize how stupid it is. It’s so much easier to be precious about an idea when you haven’t actually had to explain it to anybody.