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Ghosts from the Future

The ‘1984’ Spark File: Add Your Ideas, Questions, and Connections

Evan Nesterak

Evan Nesterak

— 2 min read
The ‘1984’ Spark File: Add Your Ideas, Questions, and Connections
Image adapted from The Orwell Archive

The Spark File is favorite tool of writers and readers alike. It's incredibly simple. It's a document of running bullet points containing ideas, questions, and connections. 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 becomes a great discussion question or an article.

As we read 1984 and prepare for our group discussions and expert conversations, no doubt ideas, questions, aha moments, and more will pop into our minds. How can we capture them? Our own collective Spark File. 

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