No, it's not that kind of morgue. A morgue file is a repository for inspiration, tutorials, reference images, writing tips, newspaper clippings-- and it wants to be your new best friend. There are no dead bodies involved (unless you're just that kind of person, I guess).
Who uses morgue files? What are they used for?
Artists, writers, storyboarders, college students, animators, supervillains, teachers— pretty much anyone who needs quick access to a bunch of things that are related to each other.
You can use morgue files for quick reference, tutorials, tips, dirty cheats, all kinds of things. You can put reference photos and photos of cats and pictures of things that just inspire you to be creative.
It's important for artists to have reference photos on hand so that they can draw from life and create accurate art without having to interrupt their workflow by Googling 'how many toes does a llama have?'.
Writers can keep morgue files with writing tips and grammar notes. (Don't remember the i-before-e rule? Keep forgetting the difference between lay and lie? A morgue file can help.) They can also include their favorite pieces of writing and read them to get inspired.
Students can organize essay ideas, teachers can keep classroom decoration tips, supervillains can catalogue giant robot blueprints. You can pretty much make a morgue file for any topic or occupation on Earth. They're a really good way to keep your resources at hand without having to look for them— because they're already right there in one place.
So how can I make one?
You can take the old-school route and literally keep things in a manila folder or three-ring binder. (I recommend using sheet protectors and tabs to keep things organized.) This gives you the ability to actually touch and feel your reference materials. It's a good option if you're not tech-literate or just like the feel of paper. (Get help printing things if you go this route and have no idea what "ctrl+p" means. Trust me.)
Or you can go high(er)-tech and create a Tumblr blog as your morgue file. (Bonus: you can 'reblog' content from other people without having to post it yourself. And you can tag things for ease of location later.) You can do something similar by creating boards on Pinterest. (Bonus: you can have a zillion different boards in case you want to keep things organized, or you can throw everything onto one board if you prefer the disorganized morguing experience.)
You can create a bookmarks folder in your browser to keep track of web resources. Heck, you can even save things directly to a folder (and subfolders!) on your computer.
The great thing about morgue files is that how they're made and what goes into them is totally up to you. You choose how to put them together, how to organize them, and what you save in them. You can have one, or a hundred, or as many as you can reasonably maintain. You can show them off if you want your ideas to be free— or keep them private if you're paranoid about people stealing the ideas for the next great American novel, which you will totally write as soon as you're done pinning cute cat pictures on Pinterest.
But why is it called that?
The term 'morgue file' really did once have something to do with actual morgues. It referred to a manila folder that detectives and journalists would put newspaper clippings, field notes, and other files in when they were working on a case.
But now it just refers to a file where you can keep reference photos and other useful materials.
My morgue
I keep a morgue file of writing tips on Pinterest. I also have a Tumblog dedicated to pictures that inspire me or things that give me ideas for short stories. The Notes app on my phone even works as a mini-morgue where I keep ideas that I get in dreams or things I notice on the street that might fit into a story really well.
Morgue files are so, so useful and everyone in any kind of creative profession should absolutely have at least one! Trust me, you'll thank me when you don't have to Google 'llama toes'.
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