From idea to text using zettelkasten

Explaining my creative process in detail

🏷️ Categories: Creativity, Zettelkasten, Writing

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Let's talk about writing.

This topic has come up quite a few times: talking to friends, through the comments you leave me in my letters, and in conversations with some people in this community. The topic of how I develop my creative process often comes up. I've talked about many techniques and methods, I've tried them all, but which ones do I use? What works best for me after trying so much?

Talking a few days ago with me, I made the final decision: to dedicate a letter to explaining the entire process from the idea to the letter I write to you.

I hope it inspires you.

1. The origin of ideas

1.1. Capturing in the zettelkasten

It all starts when I find something that inspires me.

It can be a book, an article, a podcast, a conversation or even a question that has come to mind. The first thing I do is capture the idea in my zettelkasten either in the form of a fleeting note or literature note, depending on the time I have.

For this step I use Obsidian if I'm at home, but if the idea comes when I'm away, I send it to myself via WhatsApp to save it in the zettelkasten when I get back home.

1.1. Zettelkasten Ideas

The zettelkasten also helps me to think.

That is one of the greatest advantages of the method. I can find unexpected connections between ideas that previously seemed isolated. For example:

• If you want to change, change your environment: Scientific articles on the drugging of soldiers in Vietnam + articles on behavioral psychology.

• Only time will tell: Notes on the Lindy effect + notes on the biography of Augusto Monterroso.

• The pleasure of contemplation: Notes on Monet's paintings + notes on an essay written by Byung Chul-Han.

• In search of the essential: Notes on the designer Jasper Morrison + ideas on minimalism.

Look at this, the ideas were already in my zettelkasten, I just had to discover them.

The most incredible thing is that the process feeds back. The more I read, the more notes I add, the more notes I add, the more connections and knowledge I have to write. It is a virtuous circle where your knowledge expands more and more.

Let's see it in a diagram.

2. Writing phase (expressing)

Expressing yourself means creating something new from the ideas in your zettelkasten.

For this process I use a kanban within Obsidian, which allows me to classify the notes according to their development status. I do it like this.

• “📦 In queue”: Ideas that I haven't written yet.

• “⏩ Active”: I'm writing or researching the topic.

• “✔️ Done”: It's already written.

• “✉️ Published”: I've already sent you the letter.

The first thing is to search my zettelkasten for all the notes that could be useful for the topic I want to talk about. When I have all the ideas on the table, I start to assemble them into an outline. The idea is now in “Active”.

It's time to think.

I start to reflect on the different ideas trying to find what those ideas have in common, what their origin is, what ideas contradict each other and give different visions, etc. I try to understand the topic and draw valuable conclusions.

Once I have my mind sorted, I move on to writing the letter.

This part is quick because I have already reflected enough beforehand. When writing, I sometimes go back to the zettelkasten, looking for new ideas that inspire me and that I had overlooked at the beginning. The end result is a letter written in my personal style where we reflect on inspiring ideas that I have been collecting from all kinds of sources, and as usual, I leave the references from where the ideas come from.

This is how I go from capturing to connecting and then to expressing.

3. Back to the Zettelkasten

Once I am satisfied with the result, I send you the letter with much love.

Although the part of expressing oneself is already "done", there is one last step left. The text I wrote is saved in the zettelkasten as a permanent note. Think about it, what I did was to put together many literature notes and think. In this way, the ideas that emerged can be used again and expanded in the future.

Now we have come full circle with the zettelkasten.

A tip

Don't confuse a tool with a method.

My tool is Obsidian, but my methods for writing are the zettelkasten and the kanban. I could have these methods in another tool like Notion or in a notebook and a whiteboard, which is how these methods were born, that's the least of it.

The important thing is to use what best suits you.

If you have any questions or want to talk more about this or another topic, leave me a comment or talk to me directly if you prefer: Álvaro García.

It's a pleasure to help 😊.

✍️ Your turn: What creative process do you follow? Were you inspired by mine?

💭 Quote of the day: “Of course, I don’t think everything myself. It happens mostly within the Zettelkasten.” Niklas Luhmann.

See you in the next letter! 👋