Writing Fiction? Literary N...
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Writing Fiction? Literary Nonfiction?by zo219 - 11:00PM, Jan 11, 2004 |
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Check in here! NoteBook works for the kind of idea-generating within the process of writing. . .in ways newcomers to Mac, to OS X have only dreamt about!Would love to exchange tips with like minds.Zo |
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Z0-1, What type of writing do you do? Non-fiction/fiction? Most of my writing is persuasive/marketing/advertising. One way I've used notebook ways to create a nested outline of my "invention" tools/principles/techniques. I've got several hundred items categorized. So, when working on a project, I can tape into a categorized list of every technique I've run across the last 10 years.. 100 best headlines, 200 motivational hotbuttons, 31 persuasive wrting strategems for letters or print ads, writing examples of creating conviction or interest or building desire, etc. Next, I create a page for each project and dump "stuff" onto it as I'm researching. Later I clean it up and categorize it... I still write in Word or Copywrite or Ulysses for the actual creation. I use Nova-mind for a fast way to flush out the angles and approaches and content I may use... Is this what you were looking for?
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You sure sound like you're better organized than I - you'd have to be. Thought I guess I'm making my own library of what interests me, too. "Storing" things in DevonThink and working in NoteBook. Am interested in how you sort or label, how you retrieve the info you want. Do you feel that NoteBook makes you more creative with your ideas? Zo
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zo1, Sorry about the delay to your query. First, any appearance of orginization it an act. I'm totally disorganized. My projects research requirements are such that I add all the bits of information on a single page in the notebook.. I just keep adding cells til I've got a monster page. Then I'll organize the material into categories before I write. The categories depend on the project and the persuasive task.. could be product or service details/features.. benefits.. customer pains and desires etc. I usually read the notes over a few times.. then just start writing. Sometimes I'll make out a flow map. Many times I'll look at all the info in Notebook, then use Nova-mind to mind map it and move the branches around to work on different flows.. Does it make me more "creative"? Well, it does make me more organized.. before this information would be all over my computer.. so now I have all the stuff where I can get it, see it, move it around, add and delete it.. So, there is more fuel for my immagination to play with. I guess, yes, it makes me more creative. And I'm sure not loosing all those stacks of paper I had laying around... Sidenote on organization: I'm a mess.. I'm a paper blizzard. I've always felt self-conscious about it. Always swore that next year I'd be more organized. Well, I go for this copywriting interview with one of the top copywriters. I'm in reception on time, but the receptionist says that I have to wait a minute while the guy "straightens up his office a bit". After 10 minutes they send me in there. Wow.. I look around and there were stacks and stacks of paper on the floors, desk and cabinets. This is AFTER he straightened up. Suddenly, I realized that I'd found "my people" - my lost tribe of ad-copy writers...
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Great story! i've referred here before to "The Social Life of Paper," an article of interest to anyone interested in how we organize and why, available on New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell's site, www.gladwell.com. NoteBook allows you those desk piles and at the same time makes them more retrievable and reworkable than anything I've seen so far. Blurring the line between scraps and useful ideas in a way that leads to increased inner organization, of thought. . and I am hoping to see a few more tweaks in future versions that will allow NoteBook to become my dayrunner as well. Zo
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Thanks for the link to “The Social Life of Paper”. Being stuck mentally right now between high-tech and low-tech options, I found it very helpful. Beth
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1trickponey
Member
12:45PM, Jan 15, 2004