Note Taking

[Todd]

When you finish playing/watching/reading something and decide you want to make a shrine, do you replay/rewatch/reread the subject material, and do you take notes? What do your notes look like? How long do you spend note taking?

[Mikari]

I used to re-watch some parts that needed more attention to detail to refresh my memories and get screenshots. My notes for when I made shrines were in the same style as when I wrote fanfics: they only really made sense to me. This could be an example about what they looked like:

ShrineCharacter powers
ShrineCharacter meets Character 2
Battle of X place
explanation on episode 25

Just little reminders like that using very few words. XD

[Lethe]

Great topic, Todd!

So far, I haven't shrined anything right after experiencing the subject for the first time, but yeah, if I intend to shrine something, I always reexperience the subject in its entirety and take notes while doing so. I don't remember how I handled it a few years ago when I made my first shrine, but I don't think it is what I am doing now, which is very organized.

I work with an evolving notesheet that continuously changes as I progress with the shrine. If I'm working on a really big shrine, I may make an entire folder (I use Evernote) full of different notes for the subject.

• Step 1: Brainstorm. I write down everything I observe and that I think I want to point out and address in the shrine while reading/watching/playing the thing.
• Step 2: If I'm in the fandom for the thing, I will reread external texts, reviews, forum discussions etc. to see what others have observed and what would be interesting to bring up. Or identify common points of confusion or misunderstandings or animosity towards the subject, which I might address as well. I add or copy those things to the notesheet.
• Step 3: At this point, my notes look like the word vomit that they are. Bullet points, copy paste sections of things I found interesting or things I wrote on Tumblr, quotes of the series/character, links to resources, etc. I clean up and make an outline with the notes, organizing it into bullet points so I know how I have to design the layout to fit the content of the shrine, especially the navigation (and subnavigations). I settle on a rough structure, where at least main navigation points are in the correct order. This is to avoid repetition later on due to bad structuring. I also want my shrine to have a kind of content curve to it: introduction, depth/story-heavy stuff, discussions and musings.
• Step 4: I start writing for the shrine.
• Step 5: I continuously refine the outline even after having started working on the shrine. Some new themes or realizations may come up that I want to address too, or I realize some topics can be merged into one page. I delete any notes and bullet points from the outline that I have finished integrating into the shrine. The outline gets emptier and emptier the farther I progress = sense of accomplishment.

Sharing this in detail in case it helps anyone! Example pics below:

Folder for a big shrine (on the left). This was for a video game shrine and I worked with a game script. I went through the entire game script (split up into 4 different discs/chapters), deleted all text that was irrelevant to my shrine, colour-coded the rest according to characterization, worldbuilding/lore and hints at story developments. There's a note to keep track of what all the different savestates are for because I had to replay some scenes to get more screencaps. There's a note for all external resources. A note for the big media section, including links to fanfics.

Part of the outline; it's been significantly cleaned up. I take notes in two languages because during the brainstorming process, preciseness, efficiency and speed are important to me lol, I look for the correct words in English later. Outline includes direct citations of external input that inspires me ("").

Part of the outline for a smaller project.

Miscellaneous notes or resources that do not fit into the outline are posted below the outline, separated by topic. They remain in their word vomit state.

Quality-checking notes for when I'm nearing the end. I reread all my pages several times during different stages of shrining. This is when I curse cross-linking as I always decide to cross-link in retrospect, so I have to reread JUST to know where to add the stuff. =_=

[Sarah]

I always have to rewatch/reread before I make a shrine to a subject. My memory is just not that good, lol. (Unless it's a movie I've seen, say, a hundred times and I basically know it by heart.) However, I do not always take notes, which is something I feel I should do.

I did take notes for my Chizu shrine, though. Probably because that is the only book-based shrine I have so far, and IMO it's easier to take notes on subjects from that form of media.

When I took notes for that shrine, I just went by chapter. So the chapter was like the header, and under each one, I would write down various bits of info on Chizu that I found important/relevant.

It was very helpful in writing my shrine, so like I said, I should definitely do it more often.

[Camy]

I never take notes since I can just go back to check on something I'm not exactly sure on, thanks to the internet.

Though with a subject like Hakuouki for my pairing shrine, I had to play the extras and type at the same time xD

[Crystal]

I never take notes since I can just go back to check on something I'm not exactly sure on, thanks to the internet.

I do this too. xD I'm wondering if I need to start taking notes though because I seem to be struggling with this shrine right now.

[Kate]

I over kill in note taking so I always have to reread or rewatch something in order for me to write a shrine. I feel so lost without a plan and a notebook full of info heh. T__T What I usually do is, I go by chapter by chapter and as I find things that I want to include in my shrine, I write down the page number and chapter, and a little sentence for reference. :D Maybe I want to write about someone's growth as a person and I see a little part that stands out, so I write the page/chapter number and a "LOOK AT THIS GROWTH!!!" hahahha!

[Larissa]

Can you put words on it? Then I've taken notes there.

Yeah, uh. I've been really disorganized with my notes in the past. Here is an incomplete list of things I have used to take notes:
- Physical notebooks (mostly I write content in them though)
- .txt files (scattered notes, sometimes outlines, sometimes first drafts of pages)
- Receipt tape (thanks old job)
- Evernote (for 4am thoughts)
- Listography (for first draft outlines)
- Tumblr (for note-taking liveblogs/analysis braindump, usually first drafts of pages for sites)
- Scrivener (supposedly I organize everything here... supposedly)

My notes are usually a mess, to put it mildly. I tend to organize as I build the sites, though, so I don't tend to spend a lot of time organizing my notes -- that gives me less time to write. I generally only write enough notes to get me going on writing content, and I do whatever research I have to as I'm writing that particular page. I tend to add and delete sections a lot as I write a site, depending on what best fits the end result.

I actually went back and looked at a bunch of my old sites, and it's really interesting to see how my process has evolved over time! It seems like I mostly stuck to .txt files back in the day (because they were the most easily portable in the days before smartphones) and I know I handwrote a lot of content off of those notes, so that makes sense. These days I have a lot of different options and it does not help my disorganization.

[Robin]

I usually take notes for shrines--sometimes mentally, sometimes verbally, and sometimes in a text file. I like to talk out my ideas more than anything, though I end up talking with people who have no idea what my shrine subject is, LOL! My note-taking is done in fits and spurts and is not organized in any way... #adhdlife

I also like to take notes as I'm watching/playing through if I'm already seeing a favorite character or favorite concept emerge, because I don't want to have to rewatch everything to get notes later. (Example: right now I'm kicking myself for not taking notes during my first full watch-through of the British crime drama Foyle's War, because I'll have to watch basically through the whole series again to get notes on my favorite character. Fail! xD)

[Emrys]

If it's fresh in my mind, I just write down everything I remember about it. Then I will go back and re-read/re-watch it with my tribute in mind so that I don't miss out on any details!

My notes are always a mess of information, though, and I take forever just writing up a two minute scene. I always start off by writing the bare facts (like what happened, what was said) and then I will take a minute to analyze what that could mean in the context of my tribute (like for a character tribute, how that effects their growth, for a relationship tribute, how that fits in their dynamic, for a series tribute, how that effects the flow of the story etc etc.)

I don't mind note taking but it also depends what kind of site I am aiming for. Most of my OPS, I don't bother because they're more about character analysis or a big babbling of why I like them. However, if I want a more linear, logical site, notes are a must!