Index Cards

Everyone uses index cards. They are so easy to use.

For writers, index cards are a mainstay. Like pen and paper, they capture our thoughts and allow us to organize and manage our ideas.

I keep a pack in my top desk drawer and also carry a pack in my computer bag.

After a business trip or vacation I can spread out my index cards on the dining room table and organize them in rows or columns. A perfect way to touch and feel my spatial network of ideas.

Consider Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat!" series of books. Who hasn't read about "The Board" -- a tool to organize the 15 dramatic beats of a screenplay into a classical three act structure with three turning points. It captures the entire three act structure for a two hour screenplay in forty index cards.

Index Cards are ubiquitous and dirt cheap. At my local grocery store I can buy 120 cards for 98 cents.

My problem is that the age of computers has rendered my penmanship almost unintelligible. The ideas I jot down are impossible to decipher, after a multi-week trip.

My solution was to write a simple Index Card program as part of a Computer Science course at the University of Washington. The software is written in Java and runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. All that it needs is a Java engine.

Frugal Writer Index Card is a tiny 200K java program, (that is Kilobytes not Megabytes -- about the size of a banner ad) and it is free, no up-sells, ads or other marketing crud!

I find it helpful, maybe you will find it helpful too.

There is online help in the form an index card deck. The card decks that it saves are small, text-based XML files that can be downloaded and shared via email.

I have posted a sample "Save the Cat" board for people who like to work with that paradigm.

Other sample index card decks include a Dramatica board: four throughlines with four signposts per throughline.

I wish there was an iGadget version (iPhone, iPod, iPod, Android). But alas; iOS does not include a java engine and the Android java is not robust enough for a desktop application. I do have an iOS based Logline tool, kind of like a story etch-a-sketch, but that is a different post.

If you have any questions, please post here and my answers can be viewed by everyone.

Enjoy!