Amy Lenarz asked Erik Larson:

It's always obvious when reading your books that you've done a huge amount of research. What kind of system do you use to organize all the information you find? Do you have stacks of manila folders? Post-it notes on every surface? Some kind of software? It seems like so much to keep track of!

Erik Larson Basically, I have stacks of documents, all coded and indexed. I place all the relevant facts, quotes, scenes, etc., in a chronology on my computer, with just enough text that I'll recognize the material, and of course with the associated location code. The result, in the case of Dead Wake, was a 165-page, single-spaced, chronology that then served as a defacto outline, listing everything that might possibly be useful in chronological order, sometimes down to the minute.

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