The Spark File: Add Your Connections, Questions, and Ideas
The Spark File is a favorite tool of writers. It's incredibly simple. It's a document of running bullet points containing ideas, connections, questions, and leads. New idea? Add a bullet point. New question that might be worth thinking about later? Add a bullet point. (I first learned about the idea from author Dan Pink. Dan describes his spark file in a brief video here.)
Think of adding to the Spark File as the data collection step for a writer—or a reader. The emphasis is on getting the data down on paper, not on filtering (that comes later). It’s how ideas—the ephemeral currency of reading and writing—transform from neuronal firings into the physical material that can later be minted into a piece of writing or a discussion question.
As we read Meditations for Mortals and prepare for our conversation with Oliver, no doubt ideas, questions, aha moments, and more will pop into our minds. How can we capture them? Our own collective Spark File.
Let’s add our “sparks” to the comment section below. Sparks can be anything: an idea that pops into your mind, a link to an article you read, a question about the book, something that occurred to you about imperfectionism. It's okay if the thought is half-baked. Someone else’s spark might connect to your own, or yours might provide the fuel for someone else's thinking. It’s a way that we can each benefit from the great collective brain we’ve built with this club.
The goal is to transform our neuronal sparks about Meditations for Mortals and the 'Living the Imperfect Life' theme into material we can use later. So what will we do with it?
Every so often, Dan Pink scans the file to see what catches his interest again. He might prune a bit too.
That’s what we’ll do. When we host the discussion and live event with Oliver, we’ll have a batch of sparks to scan and see what we should elevate into the conversation.
Let's get started: Add something to the Spark File via the Member Discussion section below.
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