How I Use Index Cards to Capture Ideas, Create an Outline, and Draft a Manuscript
Editor’s note: This post is part of a series featuring guest experts and authors who share their perspectives and experiences with readers of this blog.
Over the years, I’ve been asked by aspiring authors to give them tips on book writing.
While I don’t have the right generalized knowledge to write comprehensively on that topic, I do have very specific knowledge about how I write books. I hope it can help you with your journey as an author.
Where do I get the ideas for my books?
I don’t choose them; they choose me. I once heard prolific author Peter Kreeft say that his books leapt into his head in all the oddest places — the grocery aisle, for example — nearly fully formed.
I can’t say I’m quite that lucky, but I would say that my book ideas do seem to come to me, and I then feel like a mother meant to bring that child into the world.
I’ve currently got a list of 20 more books to write. I’m regularly adding another one or two, so I’ll have to improve my pace of writing one every five years if I have any hopes of completing them all. Thankfully, the steps below should help me accelerate.
How do I keep my thoughts / notations / citations straight?
I keep a stack of index cards with me at all times. As a thought pops into my head, I jot it down — one thought per index card. As I’m reading, if I come across a point I like, I’ll jot that down too, noting the book or article, author, page number or date, anything to specify it as clearly as possible.
I’ve had to stop myself from abbreviating anything, for I’ve too often returned to a card and been frantically trying to decode which book and author the jumble of letters referenced.
These stacks of index cards are then sorted by which of the working book ideas it best relates to. If an idea ties to several book ideas, I create duplicate cards.
To keep the index cards sorted, I store them in a set of photo boxes that are used by scrapbookers. These cards then become the start to the book contents.
If a stack of cards is small, it’s probably too light for the book. So, I’ll dive into my library or into a book ordering spree and do a bit more research or solo thinking sessions to add index cards to the pile of thoughts.
I’ve been keeping files of cards for years now. I probably have several thousand sorted and ready for the new books. This is a great way for me to keep the future books achievable through slow investments of time and thinking.
How do I write my first drafts?
I spread the index cards for that title out onto a big table and start to group them by topics that may become the chapters. I’m very loosely sorting them at this point so that a structure can emerge versus be imposed. Some will gravitate toward the book thesis–those go into the introduction pile. Others will illustrate a point for later.
Once I have all the cards stacked into their categories, I then sort each stack into the chronological order that I’d want to mention them. This becomes a fluid “pre-draft” that gives me a sense of flow.
Once I start writing, I just start with the first card and tie it into the next and on and on until the stack is gone. The draft will be rough, without polish, but it gets the thought strings out for sharing and refining. I throw away the cards after I’ve written from them.
If I don’t use a card, I file it back into a pile for another book or dump it into a general pile that gets sorted again at the end of the project. That helps me keep each thought captured so no thought gets lost or forgotten.
How do I revise my drafts?
I let a lot of people see the first messy draft. They give me a wide range of feedback. Through their feedback, I’m able to test what resonated and what flopped. Then I revise the draft before I’m too wedded to any of it.
People who’ve read my first and later drafts can catch glimpses of the first draft in the latter, but it is usually very different. I thought I had revised a lot between the first and final drafts of my first book, Everyone is a Change Agent, but the transformation of my second book, Change Tactics, from the first to the last was even more extensive.
Revising this way takes a long time, but it suits my personality to revise in the soft conflict of multiple perspectives and find a spot amidst the feedback that is both true to the early readers’ investment of time and courage to critique the manuscript and to my voice and intentions for the book.
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Whatever process you use to write your book, the encouragement I want to leave you with is this: Write your book. Don’t let a process, or lack of process, stop you.
Let your book flow out of you — even if it’s one letter, word, paragraph, or page at a time.
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from one originally published at engine-for-change.com.
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