I have a lot of ideas for things I want to write, but I usually end up getting lost in a stream-of-consciousness and either lose interest in the idea, or suddenly feel overwhelmed by the breadth of the subject I wish to cover.
Is there some way of recording my ideas which is less restrictive than outlining, but perhaps more useful than simply writing random sentence fragments on a paper which will be meaningless to me later?
Answer
The unfortunate part of any answer to this question is that you have to find what works for you.
That said, I have heard from several writers that having a small notebook in a pocket, purse, or other bag that goes with you all the time is an ideal way to keep track of ideas. This might be ideas for starting a story, snippets of conversation that you know would perfectly come from a character's mouth, a sudden motivation for the defining fear your protagonist has that will make or break who she is in your novel, etc.
How you categorize such a book would be up to you. You might have a section in the front or back for general ideas and then keep a segment for each work you have concurrently. Or you might get very small notebooks (Moleskine, for example, sells three tiny pocket books in one pack) and have one for ideas and one for each specific work.
Within that making it more than a random idea that you won't understand later is entirely up to you. You have to write down enough that you will remember. Maybe just write down a quick snatch in the moment, and then the next time you have long enough, write down enough so that you know what you meant before, and then finally when you get back to it start writing.
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