Staying Green: Recycling Plot Ideas

What do you do with those extraneous plot ideas that are too good to throw away but don't fit into your work(s) in progress?

by Paul D. Marks

I save everything. I’m a Plot PackRat. I have a file that’s 82 pages long for novel plots and another one 31 pages long for short story plots, though sometimes they intersect. I also have a file called “Bits,” where I save snatches of dialogue, characters, and other things that aren’t story ideas but that I’ve just picked up here or there. And I have a Us...