Anchoring my thoughts with a sketch

I keep most of my notes in text files. This is great for searching, but the sameness of the typography makes things blur together.

I have to read a lot to remember what things felt like, and I still feel so much is missing. Some people can evoke lush word-pictures. I'm not there yet.

Lately I've been giving myself more time to draw, to colour, to doodle.

"Today: A+ kept giving me hugs as we walked home from the supermarket."

Even my simple sketches give me a surprisingly good sense of what I felt, what I cared about.

I made a font from my handwriting, but real handwritten text says so much more.

Comics are very expressive. I wonder how they do that. How do they draw something so specific and yet so resonant?

I take a tangled thought, coax a bit of it into a drawing, and see where that takes me.

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk." - Paul Klee

Sometimes I do an audio braindump to feel my way around it or to capture lots of details. That gives me a wall of text. Too much, and at the same time, not enough.

I might try to make an outline and expand it, but I often lose steam.

I like organizing and fleshing out the sketch. Drawing it is fun.

Then I can write the text. I often add lots of details and links. Sometimes I feel lost in the weeds. The sketch becomes my map.

I want to finish writing so that you can see my sketch! (and so it makes sense to you and my future self)

Sometimes I just keep playing with the drawing until something interesting emerges.

https://sach.ac/2025-09-12-07