Keep a ‘Spark File’ to Brainstorm With Past Versions of Yourself

A strategy for keeping your fleeting thoughts alive indefinitely

Photo: RunPhoto/Getty Images

It happens to me all the time. I’ll be wiping down the kitchen counter or doing something equally mundane when I’ll get a flicker of an idea: a story to write or the premise of a book project perhaps. But then, two and half seconds later, before my…