This channel is for writer-moms (or any writers) who only get small fragments of time to write. I teach two very practical tools that make writing possible for you.
Reawaken the Dream is a 35-part course that teaches two very practical tools that let you take good advantage of the tiniest fragments of time you have for writing. These tools give you two superpowers: The Power of Connecting Threads which lets you write coherently across fragmented writing sessions and the Power of Living Characters which enables you to connect with the full emotional power of your story the moment you sit down to write so you don't have to get "warmed up", which could take longer than the moment you have available. There is a companion written lesson for each video available to subscribers to my email list.
You can subscribe here: kathleenspracklen.com
Welcome! Kathleen Spracklen Care-giver to the Writer-Mom New videos are uploaded at 4AM EDT every Monday (except for 12/25/23 and 1/1/24)
Thank you Kathleen for another great video. It have of collection of notebooks that I have created through the years that I’m trying to figure out how to extract and add to my zettlekasten. You have given me some ideas to consider. Again thanks.
Thank you for your kindness, enthusiasm, and generosity! I’ve been watching (and clicking “like”) in the background, and I’ve learned a lot from you. I’m a few months into my ZK and have used it for output already. YAY! I have a question about these legal pads. As I understand, you write your musings and drafts on these legal pads, then you create your finished product - a YT class or essay in your examples. You also capture unused thoughts that are on your pad as a ZK card. So, why save the legal pad? Is it not redundant with the union of your finished product and ZK cards? Perhaps I missed that. I have been producing output via analog drafts for many years but I never really considered archiving my analog notes. If I had unused material, I kept track of it in my old filing system (now replaced by my snappy new ZK). Just curious. Thanks again for your enthusiasm (and for not calling us “shit-weasels as your guru does -- hahaha I learned a lot from him too!). Feel well soon!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Lori. For the most part you are right. What's on my legal pads has already been turned into a finished product, but those entries like the card I showed in this video (the one with the '*') is only on a yellow legal pad. In truth, it's probably the residual 'hoarder' in me. I am so happy to hear that your Zettelkasten is well underway and that you are using it for output! Bravo! May I ask what field you are working in?
@@KathleenSpracklen I spent my first career in market research for the automotive industry, so I’m well-acquainted with ferreting about for data and info! Now that I’m retired, I am a spiritual director and teach and write about a variety of things related to Ignatian spirituality. I’m a bit of a hoarder too, so I get it! Index cards for the win!!!
@@KathleenSpracklen WOW! Small world. I’m glad to know this about you! I participated in 2014-2015. Changed my life! As you might guess, a large portion of my ZK is dedicated to Ignatian prayer.
Kathleen, you must truly love what you’re doing - helping all of us get our Zettelkastens off the ground and “into the air” - even when you’re not feeling well. Thanks for your dedication and your marvelous way of explaining complex ideas and for the ways in which you encourage us. Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Thank you for another great video. Sorry to hear you are under the weather. I hope you get better soon. sending a prayer that your cold goes away quickly. I too have been curious about how you use your yellow pad. I understand a little bit more now after this video. I too have stacks of journals where I’ve drafted out my nonfiction thoughts over the past 30 years. I’m glad to finally be able to journal now, and transition it to my ZK system. I’m curious though because I’m in the mist of starting my own channel is how you shoot your overhead video segments. what equipment do you use? How do you position it etc. I hope you do a video on this soon. Again, thank you. And I hope you feel better ASAP.
I'm working from a PC. I have a regular web camera that I hang from my monitor for the face-front segments. For the top-down, after some experimentation, I am currently using a second, auto-focus web camera mounted on a boom arm. It has a telescoping pole that mounts to the desktop. A separate arm clamps onto the pole and extends over the desk. The camera mounts to the arm. For a while I was working with just one camera and moving it back and forth. That got old pretty fast. My first try was recording from my phone using a selfie stick, but that left me with just one hand free to manipulate the cards. Thank you for your kind wishes and for your support of my channel. I hope your new channel goes well. Can you share what your topic will be?
Thanks Kathleen for keeping this presentation simple. I’m presently starting my own Zettle Kasten and most RU-vid video tend make this topic complicated. I’m a fan! Keep up the good work. 🙂
Can I ask what software you are using for these index cards? Because I have been looking for something like this my entire life and I didn't even know it. Excellent video as always!
Thank you. I have a lot of questions spinning around in my head. I’ve noticed now from your RU-vid video. I think I’m going to let this thought continued with a little bit of time and hopefully maybe some answers or clarity on your future RU-vid videos. Either way, thank you.
Let’s say that you are watching a RU-vid video or reading book and you create a Bibb card on the Notes. On the Bibard after you review you find that there’s an item there that you would like to put to your newsletter. You write that thought on another cardto remind you of something that you might want to talk about in an upcoming newsletter. Where are you filing these ideas for the newsletter? How are you filing these ideas for future newsletters?
I have a small tray that is my working box. That tray has dividers for things I am actively working on. If I get a new idea for a newsletter, I would drop it into my newsletter section.
Let’s say that you are watching a RU-vid video or reading book and you create a Bibb card on the Notes. On the Bibard after you review you find that there’s an item there that you would like to put to your newsletter. You write that thought on another cardto remind you of something that you might want to talk about in an upcoming newsletter. Where are you filing these ideas for the newsletter? How are you filing these ideas for future newsletters?
I think this is a continuation of a previous question. At approximately one minute, you said “two types of bib cards“ one being referenced to taking notes from a book and the other is for content development for a presentation you’re giving to a group. I think I’m asking the same question. Please bear with me. Content development - shouldn’t that be separated from bib cards? Maybe not, because you might be filing it under your name in the bib cards? How is that working out for you? My mind keeps wanting me to go and separate that out into content development section. I don’t know why my mind won’t stop on that.
I've done it two ways and I like the bib cards best. The other way that I have done this was to have a section in my regular Zettelkasten for my project.
Focus: going back to your talk about your presentation to the group card. Isn’t this content development? Did I understand right that you’re filing content development cards in with the bib cards underneath a numbering system of some kind that begins with your initials? I would think that if it’s content development For the presentation to a group that that would be underneath a different group, box area, section. Did I understand this correctly? Would appreciate some clarity with this. Thank you.
Yes, I do most of my content development on yellow legal pads, but I log the process onto a bib card. I certainly could keep it in a separate area besides in my bib box. I will probably do that at some point if that section grows enough that it feels disruptive in the middle of my bib box.
I found this a lovely demonstration of how ideas can be connected. I would also understand if some people felt a bit lost. For a while, I was thinking this is more a theoretical discussion of why we ought to take notes and build a system for keeping them than an explanation of how to use them. I find myself wondering what your first step was, with respect to your notecards, in composing an answer to the question. I also wonder how the process you demonstrate here relates to your work in writing fiction. I seldom comment on YT videos, and never at this length. Please consider my thoughts and questions a testament to how your work has engaged me.
Your point is well taken. I wanted to show how my index helped me pull together the references that I wanted to uss, but the reality was that they were scattered all over the index. This was because I was shaping a new idea out of several related references that were only now starting to come together for me. I think it will be worthwhile to show the Collective Card(s) that come out of playing with this idea. Alex suggested adding "conversation cards," which I thought sounded terrific, but then I realized that the Cardlink Collectives Scott Scheper covered on Page 474 of his book: Antinet Zettelkasten, were essentially the conversation cards Alex was looking for. The novelty Alex brings to the subject is having the collective as part of the index, possibly as a separate sub-section in the index.
That's been my experience, but the beauty is that the Zettelkasten is still a cohesive powerhouse of ideas even with and through all the foul-ups. How is your Zettelkasten coming?
@@KathleenSpracklen I have tried to start one a few times, and fallen off or gotten overwhelmed. I am thinking of trying again and looking for a system that will work for me.
@@ztypecraft I am very happy to hear that you are going to try again. Stay courageous 1) It is only difficult at the beginning. 2) You can change your mind about anything as you go along.
I'm happy to hear that you are getting started with your Zettelkasten. I think you will find it richly rewarding. Numbering always hangs people up at the outset, but the good news is that once your system is up and running, you'll wonder why it seemed so hard. That said, I have been experimenting with ways of numbering the cards in a Zettelkasten such that the numbers are effortless to construct. Check out my video Zettelkasten Numbering the Easy Way (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2a5TOzxuqxE.html). If you have questions I will try to help you, and if you have comments I would delight in hearing them. Thank you for viewing.
Good day. Thank you so much for these videos. Am developing the zettlekasten as a beginner. My question is, when reading a book, do i finish the entire book and create literature notes, and slips notes or i do half way and start another book? Also, on the slip card, how do you generate the topic of the slip card? Is it based on the condensed thoughts on the slip note or how? Is it also that all the slip cards should have a title? Thank you so much. Isaac zulu Zambia 🇿🇲
I suggest that you take notes as you read on a Bib Card. Then make your Main Cards from your notes soon, while the book is fresh in your mind. You can read more than one book at a time. If each book has a Bib Card, this is very easy to manage. Did I answer your question?
Yes you have answered. Do you generate the topic on the main card based on the information you put there? Should each main card developed have a topic?
@@isaaczulu3991 Not everyone does this as I do, but for me each main card developed has a line at the top of the card. You could call it a topic, but for me, I want that line to bring back to mind all the card contains 1) The new thought or information that compelled me to make the main card; 2) My personal reaction to that thought or information. I make it a rule to always include a thought of my own on every main card. Then I make my index entries from the key words in the topic line.
You go girl. I did understand towards the end. What a great idea about the bib cards. I accidentally started doing that myself about three months ago. I like the ideas that you shared though on what to put on the card. Thank you for that.
That will fit in nicely with Catherine's question. She wants to know how I use index cards to develop content. The Directory cards play into that, as well. Thank you for your continued interest.
Thank you you made some great points. Unfortunately, I’m still struggling to understand. Where are you going with all this? For example you’ve done all these index cards but how do you use them to prepare a final content development item? How do you pick up one idea from whatever number, you have connect it with another thought which is another number and then produce something new. Otherwise, you’re just creating index cards from thoughts over and over and over and over again and building the collection of cards. But when do they matter?
Thank you, Catherine. I will address your question in tonight's podcast. It's a bit too long for a comment. I appreciate your ongoing interest. Your questions keep me on point. I like that. It was you who reminded me to stop talking about jellyfish and stick with real cards containing real ideas. Where are you with your Zettelkasten?
I learned about Zelle testing over 25 years ago. I’ve been doing it for 25 years but not the way everyone says that lumen did it. everyone putting their own spin on it. Which has been very interesting. I don’t number my system never have. I’ve been wanting to, but I haven’t reached the mentality point of why, yet anyway.
I’m trying very hard to understand your method. Honestly though I’m confused. I keep wondering why I’m not understanding. But you have an avid follower here.
@@ceafva Then tonight's podcast should be perfect for providing a "why" to number cards. But I'm fascinated about your 25-year-old numberless "Zelle" (cute). How many cards would you say you have in your system? How do you know where to put a new card? What does Zelle give you back in benefits? How do you reach the cards you are looking for? Sorry for so many questions, but I am intrigued.
I have read a few books and watched many videos on the subject of Zettelkasten but I have found that you explain things very clearly as well as comprehensively. Thanks for letting us in on all the juice it really helps a lot.
Thanks for the follow-up! Having tried out some of what you've demonstrated, I now have a clearer sense of how I want to use my index and fewer misgivings about creating multiple index entries per main card. It seems a tripartite index -- keywords A-Z, People A-Z, and Discussions A-Z -- could be a very fruitful way to 'scatter the seeds' from each new main card and provide robust search aids into the vast contents of the main box(es). (I'd love to see some of the cards in your People Box and hear more about how you create, maintain and work with those cards.) Would links to directory cards perhaps play a significant role in the Discussions index idea, since these could potentially show those critical junctures where particular discussions begin or branch off, or do you think directory cards will likely play a more circumscribed role in the way you work with your Zk? My boxes are on the way and I'm very excited to get started! I have a speculative/theoretical disposition, as you can probably tell, and I really appreciate the way your videos and advice are nudging me in a pragmatic and experimental direction with getting my Zk setup & practice up and running. :)
Alex, It is music to my ears to hear that you are getting going on your Zettelkasten! I am delighted to perhaps have played a role in your motivation. I guess you have given me tonight's topic, as you often do with your thoughtful questions. Have I told you lately that I appreciate you?
You show how to welcome the challenge of having no already-perfect place for a lone card that rides in with new information. You create an opening, housing it where it can raise relevant questions. Your thoughtful indexing ensures that you can go right to it.
Thank you for this thorough and encouraging response, Kathleen! It made my day. I found your characterization of content-rich (and creatively stimulating) index entries/taglines as 'card captures' especially helpful and clarifying. I apologize for some unclarity in my initial question: rather than using sparser taglines for each index entry (the disadvantages of which I see as you do), I was suggesting a practice of creating fewer index entries overall. Why not create an index that contains (stimulating, content-rich) entries, but only for those cards that serve as the most efficient entry points to particular discussions going on within the main box? That way, the index would be designed to plunge you (and your new main card) right into the thick of the most relevant discussion branch *in your main box* to which the new card might contribute, and un-indexed main cards in the vicinity of your landing zone might surprise you (and attract your main card) even more powerfully. In any case, I'm experimenting with your approach of indexing *every* main card and finding it stimulating and helpful in plenty of unexpected ways, so thank you once more for the window you've provided us into your practice. :)
Some of this felt like watching a livestream of using your system and hearing you make decisions was very helpful. Great video! Something that stuck with me from How to Take Smart Notes is to index by the context you want to stumble on the note in the future. Indexing by discussions is a very interesting play on that, nice one Alex!
The cards you are preparing are "fact" cards and not necessarily ZK cards. It is my understanding that fact card info is findable without a card and the index card is suppose to list 1 item that comes from your experience, knowledge on what was being triggered. A note from yourself, not a fact.
You are absolutely correct about these being "fact cards", which I do not advocate including in a Zettelkasten. This was just a numbering experiment. I hope I didn't cause confusion. You are absolutely correct. The card might be about information gained from a source (fact or thought), but I advocate for always including your thoughts and insights, as well.
Why not create a jellyfish category starting with a subcategory (1 card) for structure (jellyfish) and then add numbers after? Ect on the second subcategory "general"?
Thanks for the video and bringing clarity to the concept. I have one quick question; would the initial top level numbers signify the title of say the "fuzzy" categories? And would those start as "1, 2, 3 etc." as opposed to "1000" as in your example?
This is a wonderful question, Joe, because it gets to the very heart of what we are doing when we place a new card into our Zettelkasten. We are always going to be placing our new card right after the existing card most closely associated with it. This splits in two right away: Do we have an existing card or not? 1) In a new Zettelkasten we might find that there is no existing card that associates with our new card. That's where having categories might help. (I'm still testing this out to see if they are actually needed.) So we have another split, do we set up categories or don't we? A) If we set up categories to help our Zettelkasten get off the ground, traditionally they have been numbered 1000, 2000, etc. But that's just tradition. You can name them anything you like and you can give the numbers any meaning you like. B) If we don't set up categories and our new card has no existing card it is associated with, then it just gets the next free number in the range 1, 2, 3 and so on. "A" is more organized, "B" is simpler. I'm actively debating this issue. Do you have an opinion you'd like to share? So now we have to take our alternate branch where: 2) We DO have an existing card that most closely associates with our new card. Now we are thinking of association and not categorization. We must push all thoughts of categories out of our minds, because, if we are faithful in placing our new card by association, we will soon discover that we have cards that do not "belong" to the category name that we used to help us get started. When that starts happening, congratulations! You are beginning to have a mature Zettelkasten. Throw that category card away. You no longer need it. One day our Zettelkastens may grow to the point where all category cards can be thrown away. It is for this reason, that I wonder if it is worthwhile to make them in the first place. I would love to hear what you think. With your permission, I would like to post your question over in LiLLiPub.org so that I can also get the opinion of the members of the Circle for Zettelkasten.
@@KathleenSpracklen Thanks for your throrough and thoughtful reply, and of course you can share it with the community. So this is my personal version/vision for the numbering based on your numeric/alpha/numeric system. I have identified five "Fuzzy" categories and they are; SEEK, PHILO, MACHINE, Scribe and Socio. I won't go into what eeach means because they make sense to me and are deliberately "fuzzy' in trying to keep in the spirit of the original zettelkasten while broad enough for my purposes. But they can be anything including the Academic topics you pointed out. So I would then create the first (out of 5 total) Category Cards - "1 SEEK" then sequentially NOTE NAME 1a, NOTE NAME 1a1, 1a2...then 1b, 1b1, 1b2 etc. I'm using the fuzzy categories as a map to my system so I can quickly file AND retrieve notes form those specific 5 categories. I also plan on color coding the categories for easy reference.
When I attended the Yale's Writers Summer session a few years ago I had hoped for a zettelkasten lecture. It's my humblest of opinions this should be an undergrad level mandatory course for all disciplines. In any case, I just read this is a channel to support writing moms and don't want to intrude. Best-Joe
@@joeinfantryman You are most welcome to be here. Even my course for writer moms was 50/50 men and women. Lately, I've been on a side-bent teaching about the Zettelkasten because I am getting so many people asking questions about it. You are not intruding in any way.
Thank you so much for this instructive and stimulating series, Kathleen!! (Very much in the spirit of Zettelkasten, by the way, that this branch in your creative journey has taken on an increasingly complex life of its own while maintaining constant resonance with the larger gestalt of your work.) I sincerely appreciate the depth, quality and nitty-gritty detail of what you're sharing here, and the beautiful generosity of spirit that shines through it all. Here's the first question I've gotten up the courage to ask you: what are your thoughts on taking a more minimal/sparse approach to the index, at least in the very early stages of developing your Zettelkasten? I confess that while the thoroughness of your multi-keyword indexing is attractive to one part of me, another part wonders whether the keyword approach might actually fragment the focus of a more discussion-driven query about where to place the new card. (i.e., a new (as yet unnumbered) main card might best follow a card somewhere in the Zk with which it has *no common keywords* because of the way it develops the surrounding discussion that card is a part of). In other words, wouldn't just flipping through the main box with a kind of loose, intuitive awareness of discussions trigger the most appropriate/relevant (and perhaps creative/serendipitous) discussion-contributions? I see my question is itself beginning to branch out.. so in short: I wonder what insight or criticism you might offer in response to my desire for a lighter index which tracks not every keyword in every new main card, but instead tracks key discussions in the main box, with each index entry linking to cards serving as entry points to certain key ranges or moments of those discussions? Apologies for the prolixity, and many thanks to you once again. :)
Thank you for your insightful questions, Alex. (And BTW, I'm intrigued by your neurobiology playlist - I may have to check out those videos.) I think you just gave me the topic for this evening's podcast, if I may defer my answer for a few hours. I'm so happy that you decided to voice your question.
Your video is up, Alex : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XE-_PFOd-ls.html Yesterday's upload attempt never finished processing. I tried again this morning and it worked just fine.
Thanks for so many practical tips about managing the deluge! I'm calling my section of notes to be processed "The Stonepile," after Gerald Weinberg's Fieldstone Method. Your 1/2-inch rule is a great way to ensure those ideas get their full attention, eventually.
Crystal clear, Kathleen. You've said it so well before: the old and new systems live together _beautifully_. The new main card that is a child of both numbering systems keeps the life flowing between the old system and the new. The old system isn't relegated to museum or mausoleum.
LOL. I love it. I know what you mean about being drowned out. This morning I went to file a new Main Card and I got two new ideas while I was indexing the first card. At that rate, I'll never get done. That's what I love about a Zettelkasten. I'm filing the cards from research I'm doing for an essay and the act of filing them is practically writing the essay for me.
Thank you Kathleen! That was very helpful. And I prefer the letter-number effortless system although I struggle to get my head around it when I try to implement it.
@@KathleenSpracklen Oh I think I didn’t save my response. I’m using Folgezettel which is the same effortless numbering system you use, and the same Luhman used, at least in his first Zettelkasten. The only difference is that there is a prefix, but not a four-digit one. It starts with one without knowing in advance what kind of category or topic it might be. So instead 1 it starts with 1.1, 1.1a, 1.1a1, 1.2a, 2.1 and so on. I think this system might solve the squid and jellyfish distancing ;).
@@MarcoPino Excellent. I especially appreciate the reference. I do see how it improves squid and jellyfish distancing because you have three choices of card number after jellyfish gets 1.1. In that case it is a hybrid system with a single digit prefix. I must follow that Folgezettel trail. At a minimum, I will have an appropriate attribution, which lays down a trail for others to follow, just as your post does for me. Thank you.
And of course, all of these issues only occur when a Zettelkasten is very new. Once you have a solid ground of cards to relate to, the cards give themselves numbers no matter what system you are using. At the root of things, they are all mathematically equivalent provided that you can accept the system being an unordered tree. If you insist on an ordered tree, you bring in complexity. I think the directory cards substitute very nicely for having an ordered three. So beyond that with the prefix system you are only taking control of geography. But then you also back to your original problem. With all the choices that brings in, it becomes hard to wrap your head around it.
@@KathleenSpracklen I’m not sure you were able to see the link I posted, it seems that it was removed. There is a good article online about Folgezettel written by Bob Doto, How to Use Folgezettel in Your Zettelkasten. You’ll need to google it if you haven’t seen it yet. Oh, I have another question if you don’t mind. So in your second card, 1A “jellyfish are 95% water” (and every other card after) branches directly from card 1 “The middle layer of a jellyfish...” simply because they are in a related topic? That is, jellyfish? Cause in my understanding, a new card will branch or become a child if it “further develops an idea or takes an idea into a new area of thought,” quoting Bob Doto. So in your system, card 1 (or the first card of any topic) will automatically become a parent category?
The 4 digit number approach might shift your focus from linking ideas to classifying categories . I am beginning to think that the letter-number effortless system is more intuitive and close to Luhmann's concept
What if the first card was one of the jellyfish layers? That one would have been 1 and then the card about the age of the jellyfish 2? Could the composition cards end up following 1 in that case? It makes sense that all the other cards would follow the one about the age of the jellyfish, but not the other way around, right? I’ve been trying to understand this system for a while but I'm still feel confused.
Thank you for your excellent question, Marco. I ran a test of your question and I started a text file to show you what developed step-by-step. I got as far as 50 lines of text and I wasn't quite done. This probably would overflow a RU-vid reply. So, your question will be tonight's podcast. I won't spoil it by sharing what turned up, but I will show the whole thing as it unfolded. Thanks again for your question.
Very interesting result , testing the effortless numbering system. For some reason my brain has a hard time working with number- letter alternating approach; but you test has proven to us to be more intuitive , and effortless. Excellent Lesson.
Thank you so much, Marco. But of course, you must decide for yourself how you will number your cards. I want you to feel free to try different approaches and to feel comfortable having different numbering systems in your Zettelkasten. But most of all, I want you to be fearless in the face of card numbers. You are in charge of the numbers you give them.
Yes. You can do a Zettelkasten relying only on the Index Cards. Directory Cards are for convenience only, but I find them very useful, especially as a topic grows. Without them you don't know how many branches descend from this one card and so if you have a new card that also descends from this card, what number do you give it? You have to thumb through your card deck searching for the end of the subtree. The main advantage of a directory card is what appeared in this experiment. Related thoughts are together on one card where they can interact and potentially expand the mind as it stretches to hold all the thoughts at once. It is true that these also show up together in the index. So you are correct.
Now I have some parameters (Aplicability and novelty ) to create main cards. I like your suggestion of creating, in the beginning, as many main cards as possible to get things rolling . Thanks Kathleen for answering my question
My Zettelkasten is 7 months old, filling about 1/2 of its shoebox home. It's still a bit "write-only." I believe that building connecting threads (as you show) between the box and my journals will help me develop it into a partner.
@@juliannesharer You are well underway, then. Congratulations. Yes, I would encourage you to bring your journal content into your Zettelkasten. Let me know if there is an area you would like me to present on.
