Media-Savvy Author: Effective Note-Taking Strategies for Writers

How are your note-taking skills? Taking great notes is more important than you think, especially for authors.  
 
I take notes on everything. It came from my training as a journalist. You never know when you’ll stumble across something useful and it’s better to keep notes so that you can refer back later. 
 
I’ve found that people think of note-taking as any kind of short-form writing. But my perspective is a little different. As a journalist, I was taught to think about note-taking in a specific way.  
 
There’s no room for too much color or extra wording. I even created a whole course on LinkedIn Learning all about this called Enhance Your Productivity with Effective Note-Taking. 
 
I teach my media-training clients to write down the most succinct bullet points of what happened or what was said. You won’t get every word down, and that’s OK. It’s all about keeping track of just the most essential information.  
 
From jotting down plot ideas to keeping track of who I want to follow up with after a conference, notes can make a big difference in your professional practice.  
 

For authors, there are lots of situations where note-taking is essential. Consider how you might change your approach depending on the context and what you need the notes for.  
 
Some of the ways I use notes as an author include: 
 
To capture information at conferences, panels, and book launch events 
To keep track of to-dos during and after meetings with agents and publishers 
To record key information from brainstorming sessions 
To jot down ideas on the go for my novel or my other writing projects  
 
Each of these situations requires a different approach tailored to the specific needs of the moment. That includes how you take notes and what information you prioritize.  

There are so many ways to take notes. From handwritten in a notebook, typed up in a Word doc, Google doc, or Notion, to written in a smart notebook to be digitized later, it’s important to find what works for you. I used to take all my notes on pen and paper—but as the technology has changed, I’ve tried lots of other ways to manage information.  
 
One tool I’m loving these days is Fathom, an AI-powered note-taking tool. Fathom promises to make note-taking not just easier but smarter, and I’ve found that it really does just that. It lets you record meetings, lectures, webinars, or even casual conversations! You can capture and organize information quickly and easily. 
I also use Fathom to send voice memos to myself, because the technology easily and accurately turns my recording into text that’s organized and readable. It’s great if you want to capture an idea on-the-go and look back at it later. As an author, this is something I use all the time.  
 
I also really love Remarkable as it lets me handwrite my notes, and I can access them digitally too. Here’s a video I made about it that is getting a lot of attention on LinkedIn.  
 
That said, I take both analog and digital notes. I’m much faster typing than writing by hand, so I take the majority of my notes digitally. Then I’ll write by hand a few key topics or things I definitely want to remember. 
 
Also, recognize that you might just need to take notes as a way to pay attention or to use in the moment. Sometimes, I don’t ever look at my notes again. Or I might revisit them years later. I find that taking notes keeps me engaged and helps me to remember what I’ve heard.

If you were to hand your notes to someone else, would they be able to know where it came from and what the main topics were? 
 
Make sure to leave yourself reference points if you’re taking notes at an event or a meeting. Be kind to your future self.  
 
Who was there? What was the date? Giving yourself that grounding point is important, especially if you’re going to look back at your notes later.  
Here are some things to consider:  
 
What are the “soundbites”? 
What nuggets are worth sharing? 
How would you explain to another person what happened? 
What would be in your summary of what was said? 
 
 
If I’m in a meeting where I have deliverables or to-dos to finish after the call, I’ll keep a separate list of action items so these don’t get lost in the notes. This also works for in-person events, like conferences. If I meet a person I want to follow-up with, I’ll leave myself a note at the top of my page with the person's name and a brief reminder of what we talked about. That makes it a lot easier to remember what they do and what I wanted to check in about.  
 
As an author, great note-taking skills can support your creative engine and your professional work too. Being organized with your notes is a habit that will keep on giving.

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