Writing Anything Using The Index Card Method

Index Card Writing

The Index Card Method Of writing, if you aren't aware of it, can be the much-needed answer to many common writing hang-ups It's simple, methodic, and if you follow some basic steps will produce results for you every single time.

Just to make sure we're clear on terminology, what I mean by "index card" is the little 3x5 or 4x6 lined paper card that you can purchase at your local office supply store. They provide just enough room to write some notes but not so much to let you go off on a tangent!

So on with the method...

Before you get started you'll want to have plenty of index cards on hand. You'll need anywhere from 50 to 500 depending on the size of your writing project.

Step 1 is to get your notes onto the cards. Go through your sources, your thoughts, your notes, and write a little bit of text for each topic on each index card. You want to be as detailed as possible without going overboard. If you find yourself needing to turn the card over and write on the back you're probably getting carried away.

Once you have transferred every thought and note related to your project onto the index cards, you go through the cards and start categorizing them. Break them up into groups of related topics. It's easiest just to create a few stacks and sort through them on your kitchen table or a similar surface.

Once you have your sorted stacks of cards, put each one into an order that makes sense. This is the point at which you need to think about the FLOW of your story, and how the order of facts or events in your work is going to affect the reader.

Finally, once each stack is in order by itself, you need to sort the stacks into order from beginning to end. I usually like to think of each stack as a chapter or section of the book. Depending on how you've worked up until this point, the precise divisions and the meaning of a group of cards may be different for you.

Now you have your complete project in a collection of ordered, organized index cards. This is the point at which you begin the traditional "writing" process, of actually typing the manuscript using your index cards as a guide. I would not sit down with the whole stack of cards at once, but would instead use "divide and conquer" to tackle one group at a time, and in each group take things one card at a time.

You'll probably find at this stage that the writing process itself becomes more of a process of copying from the cards, paraphrasing, and "gluing" things together. If you have followed these steps faithfully to this point, your project will probably start to seem like it's writing itself! The only thing left to do at this point is to focus on style and form, and making your writing flow together well.

To review, for this method to work, you need to take the following simple steps:

1. Transfer your thoughts and notes to index cards
2. Categorize the cards into stacks of cards that can be grouped together based on topic, etc.
3. Order the cards in each group into an order that makes sense
4. Order the groups themselves into an order that makes sense
5. Write your first draft straight from the cards, "gluing" things together here and there where necessary.

If you practice this method faithfully, you'll probably find that it takes the difficult parts of writing and simplifies them, and allows you to spend more time on the parts of writing that you enjoy.

Article Source: http://www.thearticlenet.com

Brian Vogt is an author, programmer, and entrepreneur, and the creator of the unique software for writers that was created specifically for this method of writing. To learn more about his software for writers, visit: www.textblockauthor.net

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