3/23/25
Keeping Track
This is number 104 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
AGE DOES NASTY THINGS to one’s mind and body. I’ve gone through periods of moderate memory loss, most of which were either intentional or caused by my heart problems a few years ago.
In the intentional column, I blanked out nearly all my childhood up until my mid-teens. I simply refused to acknowledge anything that existed back at that time. As a result, when I write nostalgic stories about life in Indiana, they are mostly about the life I imagined rather than the one I had. When I remember something from that time, I don’t trust the memory. It might have been or it might not have been.
During the four years I was fighting a battle against a-fib, which ended fifteen months ago when I got a pacemaker implanted, I often just missed days. I couldn’t remember what happened when. I missed a dental appointment I was sure I had gone to, for example.
And I’ve often empathized with the meme that says I don’t forget things; I’ve just reached capacity in my head to store anything else. I think that as a writer, the problem is multiplied. I’ve often woken up in the morning and needed to go straight to my computer to write down what I had thought of in my dreams.
A few days ago, I went out to a late breakfast, as I do several times a week. I’m not sure of the specific circumstances when I got home, but I believe it was a mixture of needing to use the bathroom and needing to get ideas I thought of at breakfast down in a document. I rushed into the trailer, did what was necessary and started writing non-stop for the next couple of hours.
Cut to the next morning. I decided once again that the yoghurt in the fridge was not going to cut it for breakfast, so I dressed to head out. I couldn’t find the key to my truck. I searched through all my pants pockets, including going through the laundry. Nothing. I searched all the flat surfaces and under the edge of furniture that didn’t quite sit flush to the floor. Nothing. I decided I must have dropped the key outside, so I went out to search around the trailer and the path from the truck to my door.
When I reached the truck, I tested the door to make sure I locked it. It was unlocked.
I opened the door and checked inside to see if I’d dropped the key before I got out. It was still in the ignition. I reached to take it out and discovered the truck was still running!
I now know that in 24 hours, my truck will use about a quarter of a tank of gas while idling and will reduce my average mileage per gallon by two miles!
How on earth am I supposed to keep track of all these things in my head?
I’ve told in other blog posts about my time developing Nathan Everett’s The Gutenberg Rubric. With my occupation as a designer of books and teaching the history of print, as well as all the then-current tools used in publishing, I’d been keeping notes on things I considered odd about Gutenberg’s history as it has been passed down. I was also fascinated by the inventions of movable lead type and printer’s ink. And what ever happened to the Library of Alexandria? Was it really burned entirely?
Just so many questions and notes that I’d jotted in various places over the years. So, I began collecting the thoughts in 2008 and keeping a record of them.
Hundreds of pages of scrawls regarding what the times were like, the history of the library, the composition of ink, the uniqueness of dimensionally stable lead type, the politics of the archbishopric of Mainz, the battles of Romans in Turkey, the various questionable histories of Muslim occupation of Egypt, the distance and sailing times around the Mediterranean Sea… Twenty years of my questions and conjectures about what happened in that era.
But when I sat down to write, all that information was at my fingertips when I needed to refresh my memory.
The Gutenberg Rubric is available as an eBook from Bookapy and in paperback from online resellers.
Bound books of pencil scratches are not the only method I’ve employed to keep track of important things I’m writing about. When I prepared to write Nathan Everett’s City Limits, I spent two months creating and organizing hundreds of color-coded 3x5 index cards. Red cards were what I considered episodes as if I were plotting a television series. Pink cards were scenes that would take place in the episode. It wasn’t unusual for me to rearrange these and move a scene from one episode to another.
Yellow cards were people. I even downloaded photos I found that reminded me of people I wanted in the story and put them on a web page. I don’t believe I have ever shared that page publicly. You can find all the character sketches for virtually any character in City Limits here.
Ah, yes. There were green cards for places and blue cards for businesses. Each card had a description of the salient points and as I wrote, I arranged and rearranged them on a cork board so I would remember all the things I wanted to put up there.
Some fun, huh?
What was I working on so intently that I forgot to turn off my truck? Well, that would be the notes for my current work in progress, Forever Yours. I carry a 3.5x5-inch notebook around with me nearly everywhere I go. And a pen. My step-husband introduced me to them and keeps me supplied. I’ve filled a couple of the 64-page books with notes ranging from the next plot point in the story to my grocery list and list of things I need to do in the next 24 hours.
If one could possibly read my handwriting, it is unlikely they could piece together my life from the scratches on these pages, but they are just enough for me to keep track of what is happening.
With a complex story like Forever Yours, the notebooks are not enough. I keep an Outlook calendar for the story on my computer so I can check dates and make sure my timing and sequence are kept straight. The actual year of the calendar is insignificant as long as it is consistent all the way through the book. I transfer onto the calendar holidays, character birthdays, and even the school calendar so I know when breaks, exams, and semester beginnings and endings are. Then I write events in the story on the appropriate days.
Unfortunately, that calendar is only one of three that are open on my desktop. I have one for my personal life and one for my publishing life.
There’s just so much to keep track of!
I try to stay a week ahead on my blog posts, both for my personal sanity and the benefit of my editor. I often don’t know that far in advance what I will write about next, though. So, here’s guessing next week will be all about “Maps.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
