Zettelkasten Forum


For fiction: pseudoscience and biographical details

For a fiction project I am working on I have been reading into parapsychology and branches of what I would consider pseudoscience. In digging into this work, I've found read some fascinating stuff from people who strongly believe in and/or participate in this kind of research. Their first-hand testimony is going to be valuable for some of the world-building and plot development I want to do in my speculative fiction.

Now, I want to track this information in my zettelkasten. But I also feel some small anxiety that I'll be "polluting" my notes with some of this stuff. I'm curious about how others who do this kind of research handle materials that would not be the kind of thing you'd espouse yourself, but something you want to keep a record of for some other purpose.

Second: do you keep biographical information in your zettelkasten? In this same case, I've encountered a few recurring names that I would like to track. While my novel's not going to be based whole cloth on any of these figures, I am drawing some inspiration from real life programs and work and events. My initial thought is to create a structure note related to the individual that I might put a smattering of biographical information in that can then spin off into some specifics about their life and work that matters to me. But again, curious about how others have handled this.

Comments

  • @djdrysdale

    Hi! As to your first point, I would simply create a tag that identifies the zettel as containing questionable ideas, or ideas that I don't espouse or believe myself. For instance, you might use a tag such as "#questionable_ideas". Or you could use tags that label the source, such as "#pseudoscience" or "#parapsychology". That way, in the future when you are searching for particular ideas, you could either include or exclude zettels with those tags, depending on what you are after. An additional step you could take is to not make that many connections between your "normal" zettels and your "fiction" zettlels. But I wouldn't overdo that, because connections between the two might still be useful/helpful.

    I think your concept for the second point would work just fine.

  • Now, I want to track this information in my zettelkasten. But I also feel some small anxiety that I'll be "polluting" my notes with some of this stuff. I'm curious about how others who do this kind of research handle materials that would not be the kind of thing you'd espouse yourself, but something you want to keep a record of for some other purpose.

    This fear will go away when you just use your Zettelkasten. Your notes will not turn foreign and opaque to you once they are part of your Zettelkasten so you'll have to figure out if a note is psychological or parapsychological.

    I am a Zettler

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