Cut & Paste Writing

James Fallows in the NYT and Steven Johnson in Prospect both rave about a piece of organizational software that stores and links snippets of information, Devonthink. Evernote is a similar bit of software which sounded sexy when I downloaded it to my iPhone but haven't used since. Johnson uses Devonthink for organizing and structuring the books he's writing. He says:

Perhaps the most important benefit of my system, however, is that it’s a great technique for warding off the siren song of procrastination. Before I used to lose weeks, stalling before each new chapter because it was an empty sea of nothingness. Now, each starts life as a kind of archipelago of inspiring quotes. All I have to do is build bridges between the islands.