Most of my waking hours are currently occupied in compiling the index to my book Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company: A Critical History. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but this is to be published by Bloomsbury in The Arden Shakespeare series in June. Instead of writing this blog post I should be compiling my index. Instead of eating — and indeed, probably, sleeping, I should be compiling my index. But, well, compiling an index is a process that is both fascinating and deeply, deeply dull, and the occasional distraction has to be a good thing. I asked colleagues whether I should compile the index, or whether I should pay a professional to do it.
Most professionals (see below) advise against an author doing it themselves. But that’s what I opted to do — and I’m not regretting that call. Really I’m not. Along with all else, the process has made me curious about the creation of indexes.
Indexes are cool. Lots of great links here.