I was digging around in my “writing misc” folder today, trying to get things more or less organized (more less than more, as always) and unearthed a sheaf of paper containing notes about my novel based on my grandmother’s life.

See, at my former job, we were constantly under the edict to “look busy.”   Heaven forbid anyone ever see us not looking busy.   Unfortunately, as in most organizations where there is such an edict, there’s only so much totally-job-related busywork anyone can come up with.   So when I’d run out of drawers to rearrange, and pieces of paper to stack neatly, and magazines to pick up, and counters to wipe, and chairs to push back under tables (etc etc etc) I would write.   Little notes about various plot points, or reminders of things to put in the family history.   I could look busy by writing, and of course if anyone came along who needed help, the little notes were quick and easy to put aside or put away.   Win-win situation.

I’d also carry a note pad around with me on my off-work hours, so if I was sitting in the doctor’s office, or waiting for something, I could write more.   That was in the pre-PDA days.

Eventually I had quite a pile of small pieces of paper.   I laid them all out on the copy machine so I could combine several small pages into larger pages, which would, I hope, be less easily misplaced.   (Yeah, that worked.)   *snort*

Well, today, I not only found the pages, I carefully transcribed all the notes into a neat little desktop/PDA outliner program called BrainForest, and now everything is arranged in logical groups.   I don’t usually work from an outline–but then again, I don’t usually work from a stack of scribbled notes, either.   I think the groups will make it easier for me to add more thoughts, and from there the writing of the actual novel will be easier.

Because I’m really, really going to write it, this time.

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