"Ideas for his books come to him as images and phrases rather than plots, characters or settings"

yeah, i definitely understand that. i don't use color coded index cards though. i should try it.

Interesting. I've always viewed the use of multicolored notecards as "guru b.s." I think this is the first time I've heard of an actual working writer using them for this purpose....

I completely understand that. The way my current project first started was with one word and the history and connotation associated with it. From there, the entire story unfolded.

I think that's how most of my stuff comes to fruition. I always thought it was a weak way to start a project, but I guess it's just one of millions of ways to work out your personal vision.

What it sounds like is simply a note taking system using cards-- as opposed to using full sheets of paper or a notebook.

Supposedly V. Nabakov wrote most of his novels on index cards. His wife would type them up on paper later on.

I could understand writing a note, fact, or phrase on a card, but seems to me wriing actual paragraphs would be way hard.

I'm a right brain writer. No doubt. Took me three years of painful left brain writing to realize it. Now I write strictly from my gut. First drafts are a form of novel/poems/ideas/scenes. 200-400 pages. I keep it as loose as possible even if I think I know what the story is intellectually. Intuition is my writing god.

I do something similar, where I think about the protag, what their surroundings are, the type of clothes they wear, the type of car, anything that is an image that can relate to personality.

I use note cards currently but I'm thinking about switching to Movie Outline which has an easy to use and see outline process, with character bios.