When the Master Meets the Method
Imagine capturing a brilliant story idea while walking in the park, connecting it to a character sketch from last month, and discovering a theme that ties them together—all within minutes. This is the promise of what I call the “King-Kasten Method.”
Stephen King collects ideas like finding shells on a beach. Niklas Luhmann built an academic empire with index cards. What happens when we merge these approaches in the digital age?
King, one of our most prolific authors, describes ideas as appearing “quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.” His approach is organic, intuitive, and sometimes messy.
Meanwhile, the Zettelkasten method—developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann—offers a structured system for connecting thoughts. Using this method, Luhmann produced approximately 60 books and 600 academic articles, all powered by a network of nearly 90,000 handwritten index cards.
These approaches might seem contradictory—one celebrates creative chaos; the other embraces methodical organization. But digital tools now make it possible to have both King’s creative spontaneity and Luhmann’s connective power.
This hybrid approach—which I’ve developed through years of writing and note-taking experimentation—isn’t an established methodology used by either King or Zettelkasten practitioners. Rather, it’s a synthesis inspired by both approaches and enabled by modern digital tools.
The King Collection: Capturing Creative Lightning
Stephen King’s approach to ideas is refreshingly simple: be ready when they arrive. “Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up,” he writes in “On Writing.” For King, ideas often strike during mundane activities—“while showering, while driving, while taking my daily walk.”
Consider how some of King’s famous works began as simple “what if” questions:
- “Salem’s Lot” emerged from asking: “What if vampires invaded a small New England village?”
- “Cujo” started with: “What if a young mother and her son became trapped in their stalled car by a rabid dog?”
These separate ideas, captured and developed, eventually became beloved novels.
“Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground,” King writes. The challenge becomes how to collect and preserve these fossils effectively until their connections become apparent.
Case Study: The Birth of a Story
A writer using the King approach might jot down: “What if a person could see how much time others have left to live?” Later, they capture another idea: “A character who works as a hospice nurse.” Months later, these seemingly unrelated ideas connect, forming the seed of a story about a hospice nurse with the burden of knowing exactly when each patient will die.
The Zettelkasten Method: Building a Second Brain
While King was discovering story fossils, Niklas Luhmann was building his “second memory” through the Zettelkasten method (German for “slip box”).
The system works through four simple principles:
- Create individual notes for single ideas (one idea per note)
- Give each note a unique identifier
- Create explicit connections between related notes
- Let structure emerge organically from these connections
Luhmann didn’t organize by topic or category. Instead, he created a web of interconnected thoughts, allowing him to navigate through his knowledge by following links between ideas.
The result was astonishing productivity. His extensive collection of notes powered his prolific academic career, with his Zettelkasten functioning almost as a thinking partner.
While this method originated in academia, its principles apply beautifully to creative writing—especially in our digital age.
The Digital Advantage: Why Obsidian Changes Everything
Enter Obsidian—a note-taking app that functions like “a second brain.” Unlike traditional tools, Obsidian emphasizes connections between notes through hyperlinks and backlinks, making it perfect for implementing both spontaneous idea collection and structured connection.
The digital environment offers four key advantages:
- Frictionless capture: Ideas can be quickly recorded wherever inspiration strikes
- Powerful connections: Links between notes create a web of ideas that can be visualized
- Flexible organization: Tags and metadata provide structure without rigidity
- Visual discovery: The graph view reveals connections you might not have consciously made
For creative writers, these features solve a fundamental problem: how to be both spontaneous and organized.
The King-Kasten Method: A Hybrid Approach
Here’s how to merge these approaches into a cohesive system:
1. Capture Like King
Create a frictionless system for capturing ideas whenever and wherever they appear:
- Set up a dedicated “Ideas Collection” folder in Obsidian
- Configure Obsidian sync to capture ideas on your phone
- Use voice notes for ideas that come while driving or walking
- Capture everything without immediately evaluating its worth
As King suggests, your job isn’t to judge ideas but to recognize and capture them when they appear.
2. Connect Like Zettelkasten
Once ideas are captured, begin creating connections:
- Break complex ideas into smaller, single-concept notes
- Create links between related ideas using Obsidian’s
[[double bracket]]syntax - Review backlinks to discover unexpected connections
- Use lightweight tagging for broad themes or projects
Unlike traditional Zettelkasten, you don’t need to create unique identifiers—Obsidian handles this behind the scenes.
3. Process Selectively
Not every fleeting idea needs to become a permanent note:
- Daily: Quickly scan recent captures to identify promising ideas
- Weekly: Develop interesting ideas into more permanent notes
- Monthly: Use Obsidian’s graph view to look for unexpected connections
4. Develop Organically
As connections form, you’ll notice clusters of ideas that might become stories:
- Create concept notes that bring together connected ideas
- Develop character notes with links to themes, settings, and plot elements
- Build setting notes that connect to your characters and themes
- Develop plot elements that emerge from your connected ideas
Case Study: From Notes to Novel
A writer using this method captured a note about “a town where memories physically manifest.” Later, they wrote about “a character who can’t form new memories.” The system highlighted these connections during a monthly review. The writer then created a concept note linking these ideas, eventually developing them into a novel about a town where forgotten memories take physical form, and a protagonist who must solve a mystery despite being unable to remember clues from one day to the next.
Setting Up Your Creative Second Brain
Here’s a streamlined setup for implementing the King-Kasten Method:
Essential Folders
- Inbox: For quick captures and unprocessed ideas
- Ideas: Individual idea notes
- Characters: Character development notes
- Settings: World-building notes
- Projects: Active writing projects
Simple Templates
Create basic templates for different note types. For example, an idea note might include:
- Initial thought
- Possible connections
- Development notes
Lightweight Organization
Keep organization minimal but useful:
- Use project tags:
#novel,#short_story - Track status:
#idea,#developing,#drafting - Add basic metadata like capture date and related projects
Daily Practice
- Morning: Review yesterday’s captures
- Throughout the day: Capture new ideas as they come
- Weekly: Explore connections between ideas
- Monthly: Look for patterns in your note network
Beyond Writing: Creative Applications
This hybrid approach works for other creative pursuits:
Filmmakers can collect visual ideas, dialogue snippets, and scene concepts.
Songwriters might gather lyric fragments, melodic ideas, and thematic concepts.
Visual artists can collect color palettes, compositional ideas, and thematic elements.
The principle remains the same: capture freely, connect intentionally, and let new creations emerge from the network of ideas.
The Conversation With Your Creative Self
What makes this approach powerful is that it becomes more than just an organizational system—it becomes a thinking partner.
As you build this system, your notes become a map of your creative mind. You’ll see patterns you didn’t know existed. You’ll make connections you wouldn’t have consciously made. And most importantly, you’ll never run out of creative fuel.
Stephen King tells us that “good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere.” With the King-Kasten Method, you’ll have a system that captures these ideas when they arrive and connects them into something “new under the sun.”
Getting Started Today
Begin simply:
- Download Obsidian (it’s free)
- Create an “Inbox” folder for capturing ideas
- Spend one week capturing every creative thought without judgment
- At week’s end, review your notes and look for connections
Your digital ideas collection awaits. What will you create with it?
This article presents an original synthesis of Stephen King’s writing approach and the Zettelkasten method, implemented through Obsidian. The “King-Kasten Method” is a proposed framework inspired by these systems, not an established methodology used by either King or traditional Zettelkasten practitioners.