my new story-making solution: ring-dexes

I find that, in settling on a short story idea, I generally pull two or three major observations together. I'm a constant note taker, so I might combine a certain character idea with a setting I'd jotted down, and try to work it towards a theme that has been on my mind. Sometimes everything comes together in one awesome bolt of lightning... but sometimes it doesn't. And actually, sometimes pairing two seemingly disparate elements ends up making for a more interesting story. So anyway, I was trying to find a way to put all these random little notes into one place where I could easily access them and pair them in unexpected ways.

I thought up a little device to help myself, and thought I would post for anyone in need of a fleshed-out story idea. I'm not sure if it'll work out yet but it makes sense, at least in theory:

Take a pack of ringed index cards. I found out about these from Dan, who is using them to study Japanese. Ring-dexes are already divided into four sections. I labeled the yellow section "Character," the green "Setting," the red "Plot," and the blue "Theme" but you could use whatever elements/divisions speak to you. Then I copied all my little notes down in the appropriate places. So if I want to write about Pigeon Point lighthouse, that's on a setting card. If I want to write about a weird old woman I saw on BART, that's a character card. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. So once that's done, or once you've amassed enough observational notes, you take them off the ring-dex and try to put a few together in a previously unforeseen way. It seems like it would make for unexpected story ideas, but the cool part is that it's all still things YOU were interested in originally, rather than those writing prompts where you need to write about an old car or something (even if you don't care about cars).

If it works for you, good! If not, at least you now know what an organizational dork I am.