Questions to and Questioning of the series "The Zettelkasten Method for Fiction"

Sascha

Dear Zettlers,

UPDATE (2022-02-26): The series is finished and is part of a digital garden named The Zettelkasten Method for Fiction. If you have questions on the series post them in here.

I wrote a small to medium-sized series on using the Zettelkasten to deal with fiction (both analysation and creating). To make the series more whole, I thought to give you the chance to ask any questions you have. I will publish the answers as the last installment of the series.

So, what are your questions?

Live long and prosper
Sascha

ZettelDistraction

Two questions:

1. Is it possible to review the series prior to asking questions about it?
2. Science fiction writer Lionel Davoust explains in this YouTube video how he uses a digital Zettelkasten to write fiction. His process is to link relations among notes pertaining to characters and story elements that would be too complex and time-consuming to track, modify and visualize by other methods. Is this technical facility what the Zettelkasten offers the fiction writer?

Sascha

Is it possible to review the series prior to asking questions about it?

Ah, yes. That might be even better.

Is this technical facility what the Zettelkasten offers the fiction writer?

I need to watch the video.

Annabella

I agree with ZettelDistraction on letting us review the series. Perhaps you could give an outline, like as in What do you want in an introduction. I think that this overview would allow us to know what questions have already been answered.

Either way, here are my questions:

1. Could you provide some advice on how to analyze characters to understand why you like or dislike them? I ask this because of a past experience I had explaining a fiction book to a friend. I read I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett. I loved the main character, but hated some other character. However, I failed to explain my reasons.
2. In general, how do you analyze a book to understand why you like or dislike it?

Would really appreciate something on this.

Sascha

Regarding the video of Lionel Davoust: Quite similar.

zk_1000

I'm currently reading "the wheel of time" by the second time. I've completed it some years ago. Reading fiction is fun but what could motivate me using my Zettelkasten for it?

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:
Regarding the video of Lionel Davoust: Quite similar.

@Sascha Thanks--that's useful to know. I tried to give a one-sentence summary.

There are several questions that a writer might have, depending on the literary form. For example, a poet could labor over a brief poem for years, only in the end to produce:

I Metamucil on the stair
And chased it to its fetid lair.
For now, I pass some hours there
Before my journey through midair!
-- Testiclies, The Fortitudes

I wonder, if the Greco-Roman poet Testiclies were alive today (he was a contemporary of Augustine, according to the criticaster Platitudinus, as quoted centuries later by the glossator Pedantus the Elder), whether a Zettelkasten would be any help.

Sascha

@Annabella_Zelsky and @zk_1000

Both questions are noted.

ZettelDistraction

It is a tragedy of incalculable magnitude that the poem of Testiclies, a crowning achievement of the Zettelkasten Method, has elicited no response.

Sascha

@ZettelDistraction said:
It is a tragedy of incalculable magnitude that the poem of Testiclies, a crowning achievement of the Zettelkasten Method, has elicited no response.

Oh, sh00t. My apologies. On top, I have sad news:

I have no experience (I freestyled for ~45min when I was 17 because another boy tried to diss me to take a girl from me that I never even showed any interest in but took the challenge because I was very bored and very energetic), no interest (Ich bin ein Banause) and no talent (a strategic statement to protect me from my duty to unfold my god given talent).

I have my suspicions how to tackle poetry with the Zettelkasten Method but no merits to be allowed to have an opinion.

ctietze

I didn't want to openly chuckle at genitalia jokes but now I believe I should've to avoid confusion among my peers

Sascha

So, with all the parts published. What do you feel is missing? Do you have any questions? Any criticisms that I need to adress (yes, also from the perspective of literary studies)?

I'll try to adress everything over the course of some months (which is unlikely that I can adhere to the deadline but I will adress everything eventually).

Steve625

@Sascha
Frankly, I don't know whether to curse you or thank you for writing this series.

My "write a book" goal has sat quietly and alone on the back burner of my someday/maybe list for a long time. My last active journal entry on the topic was dated November 14, 2009. Then without explanation, twelve years later, I created a journal entry on November 16, 2021, with the following:

"It came as quite a shock this morning when I awoke with the idea that seemed to provide an answer to a question I wasn't trying to find. The idea is simple; the question is how to write a book."

I then documented an idea I had to use the Zettelkasten in helping me map out what to write.

Finally, your series appeared, and I have more than a few journal entries that start with "I couldn't sleep last night." Out of curiosity, I purchased The Story Grid via the affiliate link provided; however, it wasn't without trepidation. In my mind, (journal entry January 30, 2022)

"I have no story to tell. There is no 'book' screaming inside me, waiting to be released. The worlds that people imagine when I read a good book or watch a good movie are foreign to me. It is remarkable how someone can create worlds and detailed interaction between individuals through imagination alone."

So, today, in large part thanks to you, I started down the path, creating my first two "Fiction" zettel notes and added the keyword "Superpower." Heaven help us all.

Sascha

@Steve625 I am thankful that I can be happy for you.