Some of us got into PKM because of writing. They're intertwined more than we'd like to admit. If creating a longer, finished body of work is your goal, Neil Gaiman has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Wow, I didn't know about the multi-tasking of either Gaiman and Luhmann. As someone who is deeply intrigued by both of their processes, I find this very insightful. I hadn't seen that Luhmann quote yet. So far, I've been using PKM to help me work on different projects at a time and it's helped me write a master's thesis and a few proposals. Even though it still feels unorganized to me, it seems to be working, about a year and a half in.
Being a writer yourself, I’m sure you are fairly acquainted with the great authors. Gaiman, Luhmann and Murakami are just the few I’ve referenced, but I’ll be happy to hear which authors play a part in shaping your writing journey.
It’s good to hear you are using PKM for your projects - I’ve often wondered if there are fellow-writers out there using PKM as a secret weapon. I'd love to geek out about your workflow sometime. I'm curious how a poet would set up her "second brain".
Yes, I find the topic of PKM for writers to be very intriguing to me! As of right now, I’ve found that Luhman’s categories work well for all the different categories I write in. For instance fleeting notes work well for both academic commonplacing and poetry and creative prose ideas.
I haven’t implemented his system fully and am still experimenting, but so far, the note categories have helped me tremendously. I capture notes in a few spaces, and then, I look for links across notes using Obsidian.
I’m currently in the process of trying to build a physical zettelkasten system in my home office to try and work out exactly what it is I need to make it more organized. But I’ve got a long way to go with that 😅
Have you found a particular system to be more beneficial as a writer?
A physical Zettelkasten at home was always a wet dream, but I had to let the idea go because of highly nomadic lifestyle. However, I know people like Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, Scott Scheper, and others go fully analog. Scott's "Antinet Zettelkasten" is an interesting resource if, as you said, you're looking to make your analog system more organised. He sure went all in. He even tracked down Luhmann's relative to get answers first-hand. I wrote about his approach here
Wow, I didn't know about the multi-tasking of either Gaiman and Luhmann. As someone who is deeply intrigued by both of their processes, I find this very insightful. I hadn't seen that Luhmann quote yet. So far, I've been using PKM to help me work on different projects at a time and it's helped me write a master's thesis and a few proposals. Even though it still feels unorganized to me, it seems to be working, about a year and a half in.
Glad to have read this today, thanks for sharing!
Hi Morgan,
I’m glad this article resonated with you.
Being a writer yourself, I’m sure you are fairly acquainted with the great authors. Gaiman, Luhmann and Murakami are just the few I’ve referenced, but I’ll be happy to hear which authors play a part in shaping your writing journey.
It’s good to hear you are using PKM for your projects - I’ve often wondered if there are fellow-writers out there using PKM as a secret weapon. I'd love to geek out about your workflow sometime. I'm curious how a poet would set up her "second brain".
Cheers.
Yes, I find the topic of PKM for writers to be very intriguing to me! As of right now, I’ve found that Luhman’s categories work well for all the different categories I write in. For instance fleeting notes work well for both academic commonplacing and poetry and creative prose ideas.
I haven’t implemented his system fully and am still experimenting, but so far, the note categories have helped me tremendously. I capture notes in a few spaces, and then, I look for links across notes using Obsidian.
I’m currently in the process of trying to build a physical zettelkasten system in my home office to try and work out exactly what it is I need to make it more organized. But I’ve got a long way to go with that 😅
Have you found a particular system to be more beneficial as a writer?
A physical Zettelkasten at home was always a wet dream, but I had to let the idea go because of highly nomadic lifestyle. However, I know people like Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, Scott Scheper, and others go fully analog. Scott's "Antinet Zettelkasten" is an interesting resource if, as you said, you're looking to make your analog system more organised. He sure went all in. He even tracked down Luhmann's relative to get answers first-hand. I wrote about his approach here
https://garden.malikalimoekhamedov.com/Literature+Notes/Video/Bob+Doto+%26+Scott+P.+Scheper+-+Zettelkasten+Rumbling
Would you show me your Obsidian or analog setup? I'm so intrigued by how this works especially for poetry.