Writing Notes: A Geek Problem

I’ve always been somewhat distraught by the fact that I’m, well down right terrible at working in a wiki mode. Every so often I try and use some wiki-based solution, often VoodooPad, and it works really well, until I realize that what I’m really doing is using it as an inefficient file-system like binder. I just dump things in, one or two layers deep and it often means that I just have a slightly more complicated way of looking at my files. With some help from DevonTHINK, I have a system that works pretty well for me.¹

For Station Keeping I’m trying to keep some sort of documentation, which contains a lot of unreleased and brainstorming material that’s helpful (and necessary) to maintain for the group of writers. Problem is that I don’t think in a wiki sort of way. Which means that this document is a pain in the rear to navigate, and given the way I want the software to work: a pain in the rear to code. I’ve tried PMWiki, and most recently Plain Text Wiki, and really neither of these solutions really work for what I’m doing.

Ultimately this returns to a theme that I’ve been struggling from the very beginning of TealArt, back in 2002, where I talked about my struggle for good notebooks. With Moleskine’s these days, I’ve basically found the analog solution, but I need something that will work digitally, particularly for the Station Keeping documentation, but for my day to day purposes as well.

I suppose to get the conclusion that I’ve come to you need to first know how my paper notebooks are laid out and my method of finding things. Basically I start a new page for each new chunk: each list, outline, note, and set of directions and so forth. I usually write some sort of identifying title at the top for what’s contained inside, which I underline. Because it’s paper, and it’s all bound together, and I have a pretty good contextual memory for the associations between what I write and when I write it, so the chronological aspect helps a lot.

What does this sound like? Yeah, I know: a weblog². Why didn’t someone pass me this memo earlier, it would have been helpful. What does this mean? Time to set up additional blogs to take care of these needs, because clearly thats what by brain seems to need/want. Maybe some of it will be interesting to you, but somehow I doubt this.