Information Management

I said earlier that I write, and that the work in progress is large. That means a lot of research to do, information to capture, ideas to note. Keeping track of all that is quite a challenge. I've used notebooks of various sizes and configurations. They're handy for capturing something quickly, or if I need to make a sketch of something, but finding things in them can be challenging. I considered note cards, but a significant fraction of the information I capture is fractional, expands over time, gets moved from one area to another, possibly out of step with seemingly related information--in short, I have a network of information, not a neatly categorized library. Technically minded person that I am, my immediate thought was note taking software.

There are several big names in the field, primarily phone/tablet centric, though several have web platforms accessible from any browser. But none of them really suit my needs. First, I don't want to maintain a network connection just to access my notes. Second, a phone screen is not adequate to manage my notes. Or to type on. And handwriting or sketching on a phone? Forget it. Tablet? Maybe large enough, but I haven't found any with decent handwriting or sketching capabilities--I've tried a couple just to see how they worked. And voice recognition is not particularly desirable. (I'm reminded of the story of a group of writers working on a shared world anthology discussing the current (very violent) state of affairs in the series in the middle of the restaurant, suddenly realizing that everyone had gone quiet and was staring at them.)

After short experiments with three or four apps, tools, etc., I quickly saw major problems with all of them, and learned what various features meant. I realized these tools weren't going to cut it for me, so I cast my net a little wider.

I eventually found a personal wiki called TiddlyWiki (site) (Wikipedia entry). It has several major positives. It is entirely free (no subscriptions to get extra bandwidth, storage, or features). It stores all the data locally (you can link to media on the web, but notes are local). It runs in a web browser (nothing to install on any computer). It has a lot of extensions that add useful capabilities. It is very flexible. Most TiddlyWiki information I've found has been in TiddlyWikis hosted on the web, so it's obvious that if I really wanted to have access from a web browser on my phone (not), I could.

Oh, it's searchable, so if I need to find that note about topic X, it's a lot easier to find than in those pages of tiny handwriting in a notebook.

And a couple of writers have posted empty wikis showing how they organize information. I looked at these, and stole ideas here and there, but in the end, didn't use any one solution.

I got the base TW from the website and installed it on a flash drive and have been fiddling with it for about a week, finding extensions that add the capabilities I want, setting up notes, testing the tool and my organization structure--adjusting the organization structure a few times. Setting up more notes. I'll carry around a small (paper) notebook for taking quick notes. I'll enter them into the wiki on a regular basis. I've set up an organization structure lets me tag information to specific characters, parts of the story, etc. and to categories like "Work Pending," a to-do list of sorts. As work is completed, I change the tags to attach it to the appropriate places and move it out of pending to completed.


So, this seems to be my information management solution for the work in progress. I can see using the same tool with a similar setup for managing a thesis writing project. I'll write a post later explaining the extensions I use and how I've organized my information.