Her book contains this gem that I wanted to remember for the future: I label each card with a category (like “Hard Work” or “Writing”), then sort the cards by category with 3x5 notecard dividers.įor example, I recently read Anne Lamott’s handy writing guide Bird by Bird. I bought a few packages of 3x5 cards and two batches of index card dividers, then turned an old Beats by Dre headphones box into my storage container. The entire setup for my commonplace book cost me about $20. Johnson credited his prolific writing to journaling and commonplacing, saying that he records random notes and musings in a 100,000-word Google Doc.įor my commonplace book, I color-code quotes, stories, ideas, and research data onto different colors of 3x5 cards for easy reference. Malcolm Gladwell interviewed Johnson for the event and asked Johnson how he’s managed to write nearly a dozen books in the past two decades. Last year I had the chance to meet Johnson and hear him speak. Steven Johnson has written 11 books across a wide variety of topics, including psychology, science, technology, and decision-making. Ryan Holiday, author of bestsellers like Ego Is The Enemy and Perennial Seller, is a famous modern proponent of commonplacing and has written about his process in past blog posts. “He had the Reagan library in his own little file system.” “He had all this stuff he had stored up all these years - all these stories, all these anecdotes,” said Reagan’s speechwriter Ken Khachigan. Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) used a notecard system to record stories and jokes to use in speeches. Forster (1879–1970) used his commonplace book to record quotes, comments on what he was reading at the time, interesting tidbits he overheard in others’ conversations, and ideas for future novels. He recorded entries in English, Latin, and Greek, primarily noting favorite quotes from books he read.Į.M. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) kept two separate commonplace books: one for legal notes and another for literary ones. Commonplace books, it must be stressed, are not journals, which are chronological and introspective.” According to author Nicholas Basbanes, “Locke gave specific advice on how to arrange material by subject and category, using such key topics as love, politics, or religion. John Locke (1632–1704) wrote an entire book about the practice: A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books. He subdivided his book into categories of virtues and vices, like piety and fidelity. Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD) kept a commonplace book that was effectively turned into the book Meditations, a core text of Stoic philosophy.Įrasmus (1466–1536) is known as the father of modern commonplacing, popularizing the concept in his book De Copia in 1512. The practice was widespread in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and some savvy writers still use commonplacing today. Many people throughout history have used commonplace books. In its most customary form, ‘commonplacing,’ as it was called, involved transcribing interesting or inspirational passages from one’s reading, assembling a personalized encyclopedia of quotations.” -Steven Johnson Who Has Used Commonplacing in the Past? “Scholars, amateur scientists, aspiring men of letters - just about anyone with intellectual ambition in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was likely to keep a commonplace book. ![]() While many people use a physical book for this practice, any cataloging system can serve the same purpose: 3x5 cards, Evernote, etc. ![]() Countless people throughout history have created commonplace books to catalog the knowledge they’ve learned from life experience, books, mentors, and peers. What Is Commonplacing?Įffectively, commonplacing is the act of compiling knowledge for future reference. If you’re already familiar with commonplacing, we can compare notes on what tactics have been most helpful. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, I’ll give you an overview of what you need to know. The best writing hack I’ve learned is something called “commonplacing.” Regardless, I think there’s something to be said for learning tactics that have been useful for others. Just like me, you’re probably sick of writers weaponizing that phrase as clickbait here on Medium. Image Credit: Mysticsartdesign on Pixabay
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