Hey guys,
Quick question. I want to take up card magic right. I'm honest enough to know that I'm probably not going to be the best , but looking to get good (In the eye of the spectator). My friend
@Brett Hurley recently gifted me Impossible Card Magic by Ray Kosby(Great DVD by the way). That's actually what got my gears turning in this direction. Thing of it is I want to track my routines, sleights, reps, progress etc..... I have a pretty decent memory but sometimes it fails me. I look back on my Theory11 Posts, Youtube( Dating back to 2013), Instagram and it seems as if I am all over the place.... I just want to know which software do you guys use to keep track of such information... I know that
@RealityOne (Don't know how he does it.) is a living database of this kind of stuff but I am looking for something more practical.
Thanks in advance.
For a while, I just used a Word or Notepad documents, or just a physical notebook. A little different as I would only write down my routines. Wouldn't have to write a lot, keep it open on the desktop for a while (or keep the notebook next to where you're practicing) and just jot down some notes here and there. For example, you may title something "Ambitious Card Routine" and then list out the way you want to perform it. Also helps you look back and see what you can cut out or add in.
In Word/Notepad (or even a Google Doc), you can make a folder on your desktop, and then every time you write a new thing, you save it with a title in that folder. You can have subfolders for things like specific moves, sleights, patters, etc. With a physical notebook, you can keep the pages separate ad look back on them at any time. You could even write them down on individual lined pages and then put them in a binder, organized the same way you would organize the folder on your computer.
I just opened up my "Magic" folder on my desktop. Here's how I organize mine, maybe it'll help you organize yours. Normally, I store tricks or performances that I've come up with here. Most of my ideas are completely impractical or garbage, but might as well write them down and maybe come back to them in the future. I have folders for Close Up Tricks, Stage Tricks, Tools (being things where the tool is almost the entirety of the method, such as a Die Box). I also have a folder for Downloads, anything I buy online, so I don't have to go digging through the inter-webs to find them.
Within the "Close Up Tricks" Folder, I have folders for Gimmicks, Impromptu Tricks, and Tricks with a set up, and within each of these I have individual folders or files for tricks and methods (I mostly only put independent ideas on here, I'll explain why in a second). These may be videos of me doing the effect so I remember what to do, explanations, or even patters written on a word document. Again, most ideas are dumb, but it helps to write them down, you may go somewhere with them eventually.
I only have one file in "Stage Tricks", as I don't perform to many Stage illusions (I'm using the term Stage here as a very broad one, encompassing any illusion that takes place in-front of many spectators without being close up).
Downloads just holds Videos and PDFs of things I bought.
Tools holds anything I may find useful for creating or practicing, or complete tools that can perform effects without necessarily having a presentation for them yet.
I also have a picture of Michael Jackson doing a classic stance with fire spewing from his belt buckle because of a conversation I had with someone about how many different variations of fire-shooting gimmicks companies are going to release, and the flaming belt buckle needs to happen.
You can organize yours however you want, this is just how I do mine. I have a tendency to get caught up in school and stuff and when I come back to magic I'll just be completely lost. This helps, me remember my independent ideas.
I also have a notebook full of ideas I jotted down, things I want to practice, notes, patters, or entire routines laid out by me. I've been meaning to transfer a lot of these over to my computer.... just as soon as I find it (I have a lot of blue notebooks, ok? Sometimes I mix them up and lose one). It's here.... somewhere. But seriously, a notebook is great for those ideas you have in the middle of something because you just right down some incoherent words about the topic and it will jog your memory later.
Hope this helps!
