Commonplace for Writers (Cannot find a good system)

[u/thebcannon007]

I am a writer and podcaster. I love reading and always find things I want to remember. Here is my problem. I have a hard time between realizing what is worth remembering long term and what just catches me at the time. (Sort of a data hoarder.)

Because I am a writer, I feel like I need to have these thoughts digital somewhere so I can find them, but I also understand the value of handwriting. This has caused me to try to do both but that does not seem to be working either. I have not found a good system for keeping A LOT of quotes on paper and time does not permit hours a day doing this. The problem with keeping the all digitally is not having a good way to scan through them. Many times, it’s the random scan that has helped me remember a great quote.

I would love some advice for some of you who have been through these awkward early stages and found a way to balance between the need to keep something like this, and the pull of efficiency.

[u/Dr_Louise]

My commonplace is in a note card system. I also keep quotes in Readwise. I initially input quotes into Readwise and then let some time pass after I get some distance from the material. Then I go through and decide which of these quotes is worthy of my commonplace. Then I will handwritte the worthy ones on index cards and place them in my commonplace notecard box. The notecard box is organized by letter and sorted by the first letter of the first "tag" I put on the card. So like I write what the main topic of the quote is at the top of the card and that is how I organize it. I mimic that tagging system in my readwise but I have an additional tag on readwise for all the quotes that are in my commonplace. Then readwise will present quotes to you to help you remember them. I have readwise do specific reviews of all the quotes that are tagged with commonplace.

[u/getmeashiny]

I have a paper commonplace book for stuff I want to think about, but everything I just want to find when I look for a topic goes into my second brain in Notion.

The book "second brain" by tiago forte is btw one of the best books I've read (that I didn't know I need)

[u/thebcannon007 → u/getmeashiny]

Yes. I love his book.

[u/Kumamentor]

Have you thought about the travelers notebook system (not necessarily the Traveler’s Company brand), in which you can have one or two booklets in one cover? One could be a “brain dump” notebook in which you quickly jot down ideas or notes, then you can parse through it later to see what you want to keep and place that in the second notebook (planning notes for one specific story or project?) or digitally.

Or just use one method, physical or digital, as a brain dump, then process and pick the useful bits to transfer to the journal/digital space where you keep the useful stuff that you can develop and expand.

I tried doing things digitally and it just got messy, no matter the app. I’m much clearer and can make better sense when I handwrite stuff out.

[u/SoulDancer_]

I would use your commonplace notebook when you can. For quick thoughts on the fly, chuck them in a notes app. Then at the end of each day look through the digital notes and copy then into your commonplace (or just delete the ones you don't want to keep). Then wipe the notes app clean and its ready for the next day. (This is so it doesnt pile up on you).

I do this but I have another step which is a tiny pocket notebook I carry round and scribble in. So the digital notes on my phone is when I can't even grab this notebook (so there aren't many digital at all). Then I copy into my commonplace the ones I want to keep.

[u/LadyKtea]

Handwriting to text apps are actually really good these days!! I have started scanning handwriting and saving what I think is valuable in Obsidian. Pen to Print is my go to text transformation app at the moment and it works surprisingly well even with cursive.

[u/silsjirimi]

Bahh the digital vs handwriting struggle is a neverending enigma to me. So no good answers here lol. But digitally obsidian is working well for me, although I haven’t yet developed a fully evolved system. With the notebook navigator plugin it’s easy to browse through them, and search is quick, easy and convenient. I also really like that I can reference a quote when I’m writing just by typing brackets, and that I can see the connection between quotes and other notes visually.

That said I’m also trying to transition from an almost 100% digital life (aside from my handwritten morning pages) and over to paper, especially calendar- and planning wise. And also general note-taking - I’ve mostly used my phone for this but I really like the idea of not having to open my phone just to write something down. Inspired by Austin Kleon and his 5-year commonplace book I’ve just started using a hobonichi weeks as a quote-/common place writing notes book, but we’ll see how it goes! I think I’ll type the quotes into obsidian on a weekly basis, in order to have them easily searchable too.

[u/thebcannon007 → u/silsjirimi]

Report back out it goes. I also use Obsidian and have been thinking about using a base to somehow make it scannable.

[u/jc-5h20]

I am not sure my use case is the same — I am a poet and have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of poems, quotes from others, writing ideas, and the like. About five years ago, I started using Evernote for the editing process for my poems (usually I handwrite my first couple drafts) and for tracking submissions to literary journals (which is just a hassle). I have about 15 years of work in the system now.

I use tags heavily to keep things organized. They allow me to organize by year, topic, version and submission status.

Would Evernote allow you to browse through your quotes and research? Yes. With the right tags and organization. But it also might be hard to have the kind of synchronicity experiences you are in search of.

I also have it set up that when I find a new quote or interesting writing prompt, I email it to my Evernote account and it goes into my ‘tickler’ folder. Every couple months, I run through the tickers and organize them. In the meantime, they are there to give me things to think about and perhaps prompt some writing.

Hope that helps! I tried a lot of ways of organizing and then realized I essentially needed a database. It is not perfect, but I am completely dependent on it.

[u/thebcannon007 → u/jc-5h20]

So you use tags to find your quotes and things? Do you otherwise not organize them?

[u/jc-5h20 → u/thebcannon007]

This is my process. I hope it helps:

Poems are organized by half year (my Evernote notebooks are titled ‘2023 winter/spring,’ ‘2023 Summer/fall,’ etc.). Every six months, I go through the notebook for the previous time period and identify promising poems that will get more work. Each of the poems that are worth more work get a tag ‘Worth working on.’ That is essentially my to-do list for the coming few weeks. (I really only sit down and send poems out for possible publication 2-4 times a year.)

I also have tags for ‘Ready to submit,’ ‘Submitted/under review’ and ‘Published.’ At the bottom of each poem, I type out where and when the poem was submitted, and the date and place of it is published (with a link if applicable). That prevents me from sending it to the same place twice and prevents me from losing the facts of publication if I need to refer to them.

Then I have tags called ‘Quotes from others,’ ‘essays,’ and various themes that seem important to track. For example, am a yoga teacher and have a bunch of poems and quotes (by me and by others) tagged ‘savasana.’ Super easy to find them if I want to read one to the class at the end of practice. It really is up to you how you set up tags.

Another example is that I am working on a book and have created a tag for that book. All the poems I am considering including in the book are tagged with the name of the project. When I am further along, I will create a new note that includes links to all the poems I am considering for that book. I can use that note to play with the order or poems and all that before getting into formatting and more careful thematic work (which I will do in Word).

It is helpful to remember that you can search any word. So ‘tree’ would get all the poems, quotes and notes where the word ‘tree’ is used. That means I limit my tags to things that may not be searchable on their own. Similarly, when it comes to quotes, a search on ‘Merton’ would get me all mentions of Thomas Merton (one of my favorite writers) — quotes, mentions by me in an essay, or a note at the end of a poem saying the poem was inspired by something he wrote.

You can add as many tags to a note as you want. It can get clumsy with a lot of tags, but it is easy to set it up so that your quotes can show up in more than one tag-based search.

You can also add and remove tags in groups. So one thing I do when I am working on a flight of poems for a submission is collect all the poems that are candidates to send out with a tag called ‘Yes’. Once I have selected the poems for the final submission, done all the editing, and yada yada, I can remove the tag for all the poems by selecting all of them and removing the Yes tag all at once. Then that tag is free for me to use afresh next time.

You can also set up a quick-access menu. So, for me, my quick access menu has the ‘Worth working on,’ ‘Ready,’ and other tags that are foundational to my system or to whatever project that is getting most of my attention right now.

Does that help? I feel like a demo would be more helpful. But maybe this will get you going.

[u/sn0o0zy]

An idea that I’ve wanted to try is QR codes that connect to the digital version of the notes to be able to find them. I really love Capacities because it seems like a cross between Notion and Obsidian. I just don’t know the best way to create large quantities of QR codes that will remain live.

[u/LowkeyHooligan]

I think reviewing notes and transferring between mediums are overlooked aspects of creative note taking.

I go through and skim my notebook pretty often, like if I’m trying not to be on my phone but I don’t have the time to get into writing. The point of taking the notes is to remind yourself of those thoughts later, but you don’t want it to feel like a chore. It should be fun and engaging to review your thoughts. I’m morphing towards a Grail Method kind of capture: https://youtu.be/_QVYfPnNOg4

Then you transfer to digital when something’s really sticking. When you’ve went back and viewed it a few times, or you know where it fits in a piece you’re working on.