As a whole, most of the earliest shomono took the form of notes or verbatim records, as time passed, though, more and more complicated forms, as mentioned above, as well compiled books appeared.
概して言えば、初期の抄物は純粋な手控え・聞書の形式が多く、後期になるほど右に述べたような複雑な成立ちによるものや集大成形式のものが多くなる。