Michael Crichton and Index Cards
Always on the lookout for material to post to this website I was happy to find a couple years ago this article from the website Writers Helping Writers (https://writershelpingwriters.net/2014/05/michael-crichtons-method-plotting-story/) where Angela Ackerman was discussing a how-to-write book with its author. The book is Writing Made Easy by Dorothy Cora Moore.
The article caught my eye because, in it, Ms. Moore discusses how Michael Crichton used index cards to help him in his writing.
Apparently, while he was attending Harvard Medical School, he would slip several 3 x 5 index cards into his pocket before proceeding on to class. As inspiration hit, he would jot down notes on these cards. Returning home he would store these in a shoebox (classic). The next day he would go off again to school with a fresh batch of cards. This procedure continued until he ran out of ideas to put on cards.
When that time came he emptied his shoebox onto a table and shuffled the cards around until he had a plot line he was satisfied with. He then walked away from it letting the ideas “marinate”, inserting additional index cards occasionally. When he could think of nothing more to add or rearrange all the cards would go back into that magical shoebox.
Then when time allowed he would take the lid off the box, grab out the first card, and start writing one of his magical stories.
You know the rest of this story…..
12/20