Teasing Out Your Themes: Accidental Zettlekasten

Dear Stella,

Last time I told you that my workaday backup brain was contained in a bunch of OneNote files.

But I have so many random notes and doodles from the past twenty-five years! I notice clumps of similar notes, ideas that cluster together. Oh! (I think to myself), these would make a great... novel? memoir? scrapbook? picture book for kids? picture book for adults? I gather up some helpful reading (like The Morphology of the Folktale), then forget it while my brain notices yet another flittering flock of ideas.

Long story short, before Christmas I waded into the sea-world of Obsidian (a less hierarchical note-gathering app) and then (because I was watching the usual bunch of learning videos) sank into the depths of zettlekasten.

Zettlekasten enthusiasts are like bullet journal enthusiasts. They can be very prescriptive with the wannabes who are tempted but intimidated. Trust the process!

But I have found this. Zettlekasten is simply about organizing notes so that you can make new connections. Nurture all the little epiphanies. Gather them together. Then say something new to the world, in your own words. No, don't let AI do it for you.

It's funny: my 21 years of paper journaling and my 25 years of blogging on Mad in Pursuit, plus my giant archive of photos and drawings, all add up to a zettlekasten ripe for harvesting. I did just that in 2011 when I began exploring my theme of "exiles and expatriots," which resulted in the publication of Tribe of the Breakaway Beads. (Look at my diagram above.) Now, I see a theme emerging around "pocket companions and alter egos." I can see it merging with my interest in dolls, puppets, automata, and (of course) robots.

Maybe because I'm more than a decade older, I feel I might be able to use Obsidian to wrestle these loosely connected ideas into something new. Stay tuned!

Let me know how you're managing to stay afloat in these crazy times. Your work is important!

Write soon, xoxo Susan
5 Feb 2025

*What helped me take the leap was discovering Readwise. It imports all my Kindle highlights into Obsidian. For a paid subscription, I can use the Readwise Reader to highlight webpages. Those highlights are also automatically imported into Obsidian.

---

Books from Mad in Pursuit and Susan Barrett Price: KITTY'S PEOPLE: the Irish Family Saga about the Rise of a Generous Woman (2022)| HEADLONG: Over the Edge in Pakistan and China (2018) | THE SUDDEN SILENCE: A Tale of Suspense and Found Treasure (2015) | TRIBE OF THE BREAKAWAY BEADS: Book of Exits and Fresh Starts (2011) | PASSION AND PERIL ON THE SILK ROAD: A Thriller in Pakistan and China (2008). Available at Amazon.