I have started to stick with a general strategy when it comes to keeping track of story materials.
When the story idea first pops into my head, I’ll pull up the “Notes” app on my iPhone and jot down just a brief description of the idea. I’ve learned to write the description instead of just two or three words from experience because I have ideas still on my list whose meaning I am still unaware of.
Then I make two separate Google Doc folders. One is the document that has the transcript of any interviews as well as links to relevant stories or videos about the story topic. If there are key pieces that I need to seek out for the first document, I’ll leave a sticky note on my laptop background with keywords to look for in case I forget. I’ll normally transcribe entire interviews even if I think certain parts are irrelevant, because more than once I’ve used something I initially thought was a mere throw-away quote.
From there, I just transfer the necessary information from the first document into the second document as I write. Writing in your classes has converted me to using Google Docs, and at this point I swear by it.