We've all been there - staring at a killer line we just cannot bring ourselves to backspace away.
My notes app accepts these sacrifices like a hungry god - gratefully and without complaint. But I do have a split second of regret when the cut happens. It's not quite like eating your young. Far less chewy. But there's an echo of what I imagine is a similar remorse.
'I hate that you gotta go, buddy, but GTFO.' then cut, paste.
Disappeared into the notes.
I call these guys my ghost lines.
Do you keep these sacrificial lambs as I do, tucked away in a file or note for potential resurrection someday? The zombie line's return.
What do you do with the lines you can't keep but are too good to just toss out?
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Ghost lines/zombie lines. I like that, Elle Bolan. I keep mine in Microsoft Word documents in case I want to use them for projects later or future projects.
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For every project, I have a spares folder for every cut, and a notes file to collect any ideas and a Superseded folder for previous script/document versions. Master copies: Current script; Pitch pages etc. If there is research, I have a Research document copy library Folder. Most include stuff whether it was used or not in the final product.
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@Maurice I'm nothing if not silly haha. I can't seem to help it. I keep mine in a note doc or word doc. Whichever one I open.
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@David - I wish I was that organized. I'm semi-organized. I have it all, just none of it is in a single, central place. I use different devices for different things but I'm scatterbrained and my "notes" are... Well. Yeah. Filenames don't get changed or updated. I know what it all is. I'll fix it all as things get fully packaged. I work in organized chaos.
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Oh yeah, absolutely Elle Bolan. I type them into a bullet point notes section of items I haven't deal with yet. Some are plot points while others can be one-liners that point to something.
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@Leondardo My brain refuses that level of organization.
I infodump most of my notes. It's such a dang hassle. It's why I love my virtual assistant. I'd be lost in notes without it on a serious level.
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I'm jealous Elle Bolan. I want a virtual assistant now.
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It's probably the most helpful thing I've embraced, app wise. I love just being able to spit out what I'm thinking and it picks it up. And is far better, visually, than my sorry ass notes haha
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So it's an app Elle Bolan ? What's the name of the app?
Otter.ai for voice notes. I use a standard Google assistant on one device and I'll never switch that one to Gemini. Gemini on my phone.
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I usually keep them in my previous drafts and change them out or delete them in my current draft. I am, however, planning a new "Ghost Scene Folder" for the specific script and scenes that are removed.