How I'm Using Notebooks to Write My SF Novel
My Three Notebook System and a Look Inside Each
This post is too long to read in email, sorry about that, I included a lot of pictures. Just follow the prompts and it should take you to the website or app version.
I’m an accidental notebook czar. It’s still not totally clear to me how I got here, but I’ve been using notebooks to aid the life of my mind for at least 15 years. Throughout that time I’ve reinvented some classic notebook methods, only to discover later that others have been using the method for way longer and to greater avail than I have—like the commonplace book.
But I’ve also developed some methods which are probably more idiosyncratic to me, like the book of soliliquies, where you write dialogues with and to yourself in order to get clear on what you think, feel, know—and why. I based that method on St. Augustine’s neologism, “the soliloquy”, and the method he employed in his book, Soliloquies.
That reminds me! We just so happen to be reading St. Augustine’s Soliloquies first in my 2026 Book Club here on Parker’s Ponderings! Come join us! I’m writing companion essays for each section of each book that we read in order to help you get the most out of the philosophy therein. My first companion essay drops on January 9th. Check out our reading list and schedule for the first two books of 2026 here:
And you can watch my ParkNotes YouTube video where I briefly comment on the books in our reading list here:
But back to the to notebooks. I’ve become something of an expert on ways to use notebooks, both from my own thinking and notebook mania, and from that of my ParkNotes audience and many of you here on Parker’s Ponderings, who continue to give me great ideas.
I used to begrudge the notebook czar title because I just wanted to teach people philosophy but I’ve come to embrace it because apparently my notebook stuff has been a big help to many. I never would have thought, but I definitely don’t want to begrudge that!
So, I’m embracing my accidental notebook expert side and writing up tutorials on how I us notebook to study, think, read, and write more deeply. You can find all of the notebook tutorials HERE in this section of my publication.
I am not an expert novelist. However, I am writing a science fantasy novel right now and I wouldn’t be able to keep it all straight with out my convoluted notebook system. The novel is called Block World and has nothing to do with LEGO, nor Roblox, nor Minecraft and everything to do with it’s protagonist Frederic Block, Lady Philosophy, philosopher-kings, and a Galactic Empire. The name was an homage to Frank Herbert’s original title for the serialization of Dune in Analog Magazine called Dune World, plus some other stuff, but I’m pretty sure I’m changing the name to Protrepsis: Mind over Machine or Protrepsis: The Rise of The Philosopher-King.
The story has been a joy to write so far, but it’s taken me about a year and a half longer to get going than I wanted, and most of that is because I had to think through the plot and the world in my notebooks beforehand. I know that’s not how a lot of people do things but I’m trying to write a protreptic divine dialogue science fantasy trilogy and I had to get clear on the philosophical ideas, the plot, FTL, and the intricacies of the rest of the world. I’m a research junkie. Let me be.
You can read chapters 1-3 of Block World on my other Substack publication, Sages, Mages, and Wisdom Machines, HERE. I’m a little over halfway through writing chapter 4 now and that should be out very soon.
So, on the off chance my three-part notebook method can help anyone one of you, I’ll share it here. I know others just like exploring notebook ideas because they find it fascinating or because it inspires them to retool their own. Whatever the case, I’ve learned someone will enjoy this kind of post, so I’m writing them for you. Also, I will share a ton of pictures from my notebooks because I know you guys like looking at the chaos there too.
I’m not claiming originality here, I haven’t look a ton at how novelists use notebooks yet, maybe they all do this, or maybe none of them do (I do know that at least Ursula K. Le Guin didn’t do it this way from her description in Language of the Night).
So, here’s how I’ve been using 3 notebooks to write my science fantasy novel:
notebook 1: rough idea compendium
notebook 2: work book
notebook 3: lore book
Behind the paywall I’ll explain those three, how I use them, and show a butt-ton of pictures from my notebooks.