(2024-07-14) Writing Slowly A System For Writing By Bob Doto

WritingSlowly reviews A System for Writing by Bob Doto. Another ‘Zettelkasten primer’ won’t be needed for some time, since this one is direct, concise, thorough and strongly practical.

It’s a deliberately useful book, with a clear three-part structure. It gets to the point quickly and stays there: how to write notes, how to connect them and how to use this system to produce finished written work.

Things I especially appreciate

Plenty of clear and specific examples of notes

Many helpful workflow diagrams

Clear references both to Niklas Luhmann’s process and to other relevant predecessors.

At the end of each chapter, a checklist of specific activities to try, to implement the ideas just covered

Helpful writing advice,

What about those who aren’t all that interested in actually publishing anything, who instead just want their notes to help them remember stuff, perhaps for tests? Well, although this book focuses without apology on writing, it will still be really useful for anyone making notes as a ‘second memory’

And what of those who have absolutely no interest in obscure terms like ‘Zettelkasten’, who recoil from any kind of dubious productivity fetish, and just want to get things written? This is where the book excels and where it really comes good on the promise of its title. Yes, this is a system for writing.