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What do your notes look like? (NO JINN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR CLASS NOTES)
Jinnigan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've recently taken an interest in becoming a more regular blogger/editorialist. However, I find that while I think a great deal about, well, things, I have a hard time putting it into a readable, sensible format.
Perhaps one of the reasons I have such a hard time regularly writing for an audience is that I don't organize my thoughts very clearly. I mean, look at these notes:
They're very loose and disjointed. They are key phrases and statements that can recreate an entire train of thought for me, but that of course is of little to no use for you.
I am curious, friends, how do you organize your thoughts and notes? What is your writing process like?
My writing process for a real, heart and soul paper (not to be confused with Generic College Essay #14267 or Poast #8903732) tends to go something like this:
1) An idea is born. You know, I'm inspired by something. A book, a poem, a fine memory, a wall in a train station.
2) I'll spend a few days thinking about the subject. This often takes the form of me imagining what I would say - expouse - in a made-up situation. Perhaps I am discussing the subject with friends over coffee, or arguing with a thick-headed frat boy, or speaking to a large audience from a podium. <font size=2>"I dreamed I was Malcolm, or Martin in the pulpit."</font>
3) I'll start putting down everything to paper - an imagined phrase I particularly liked ("THE UNEXAMINED HIP-HOP"), or just a phrase to remind me of my thoughts. That's what you see above. This is largely to help me begin to organize my thoughts, to see connections, and simply to help me from losing anything. I think a lot of thoughts, but I'm also incredibly forgetful.
4) If I'm writing this for anything more formal than my journal, I'll then take those notes and make a more traditional outline out of it - you know, headings and paragraphs and all that jazz.
5) Then I type up the article.
Recognize that these are not hard-and-fast rules - they're just a recollection of how I tend to write.
And now I'm curious - how do you write? Are you more linear? Do you plan things out as much? Or do you tend to wing things? Or perhaps you do something else altogether?
Perhaps one of the reasons I have such a hard time regularly writing for an audience is that I don't organize my thoughts very clearly. I mean, look at these notes:
They're very loose and disjointed. They are key phrases and statements that can recreate an entire train of thought for me, but that of course is of little to no use for you.
I am curious, friends, how do you organize your thoughts and notes? What is your writing process like?
My writing process for a real, heart and soul paper (not to be confused with Generic College Essay #14267 or Poast #8903732) tends to go something like this:
1) An idea is born. You know, I'm inspired by something. A book, a poem, a fine memory, a wall in a train station.
2) I'll spend a few days thinking about the subject. This often takes the form of me imagining what I would say - expouse - in a made-up situation. Perhaps I am discussing the subject with friends over coffee, or arguing with a thick-headed frat boy, or speaking to a large audience from a podium. <font size=2>"I dreamed I was Malcolm, or Martin in the pulpit."</font>
3) I'll start putting down everything to paper - an imagined phrase I particularly liked ("THE UNEXAMINED HIP-HOP"), or just a phrase to remind me of my thoughts. That's what you see above. This is largely to help me begin to organize my thoughts, to see connections, and simply to help me from losing anything. I think a lot of thoughts, but I'm also incredibly forgetful.
4) If I'm writing this for anything more formal than my journal, I'll then take those notes and make a more traditional outline out of it - you know, headings and paragraphs and all that jazz.
5) Then I type up the article.
Recognize that these are not hard-and-fast rules - they're just a recollection of how I tend to write.
And now I'm curious - how do you write? Are you more linear? Do you plan things out as much? Or do you tend to wing things? Or perhaps you do something else altogether?
Jinnigan on
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I'll see if I can find a scanner tomorrow.
If I'm trying to scribble something down for myself to remember later, fuck it all. Sometimes there are more vague lines and shapes than actual words.
Today I tried to decode something I wrote last month that had literally been written with two lines of writing smack on top of one another.
I rewrite a lot, and I speak out what I have written before publishing it.
I noticed that every time I write, the entry becomes shorter. I think the reason is that I hate clutter, and I'm obsessed with taking out unnecessary bits. I try to make my point while using as few words as possible, and I don't use a complicated word where a simple one can do (e.g. "first" instead of "initially", or "now" instead of "at this point in time", "person" instead of "individual", etc.).
I also never use words I would normally not use in conversation.
The link to my blog is in my sig if you're curious.
Since it's an understood You / Think / Authentic <---- should be an adverb
Unless authentic is a predicate adjective renaming you, but that would mean your blog means you are authentic. :P I kid but still I question.
My notes are hodgepodge and a chaotic mess that makes sense usually just to me.
When I lend my notes I have to be there to translate.
:P
Even my typing cannot keep up with my stream of consciousness.
Yeah but that doesn't rhyme.
Okay okay, I wasn't going for grammatical correctness.
Thanks for pointing it out though.
Well it's a sort of controlled stream of consciousness, if that makes sense. I let my mind wander, and I try to write down most of it, but obviously I can't keep up with everything that pops into my head.
I will read your blog at a later date. It looks interesting.
when I take notes
..I do it like this
....because in high school my english teacher taught me this
.......I forget what she called it but there was a special name
new subject!
..I write all my notes on my computer now
.....sometimes I miss hand writing
(Replace the dots with spaces)
But I use bullet points.
My philosophy notes look very similar to my math notes, actually.