Anecdotes, Bits and Pieces, and Untitled 1, 2, 3 and 4...

...Or: one step Forward, two steps Backward. Marion sent me the revised list of chapters, with the revised chapter numbers in the correct sequence. Except for all the question marks. When I was spontaneously writing new little thoughts I had pertaining to a chapter already written, I just saved it under Anecdotes, or Bits and Pieces. BAD IDEA! Because six months later, you remember having written something on a certain subject, but you can't remember. The Subject, the Reason for adding it, WHERE you added it....GONE. Now you have to read all the little Bits and Pieces over and over again to try to decide which chapter they belong to. That goes for Anecdotes, and especially the longer versions called Untitled 3. What was I THINKING?!? All of this to tell you that the one step Forward means I at least have most of the Titled chapters in reasonably sound sequence. When I get all the question marks identified, Marion says THEN, and ONLY then, can I actually start revising the chapters after I have a long conversation with her as to Content. Sigh...Your impatient Janice

Beds are for sleeping.

My last Blog mentioned the various piles of chapters I had scattered all over the bed, under various scraps of paper marked with the Subject matter. Last night I finished the sorting and wanted to assure my readers that my grumbling was finished, too. Next step? Taking each subject with all the chapters in it, and putting each chapter in the sequence it should be read. Once I get the numbers on each title, I can then start revising them. Did I mention somewhere in the past that writing a book was a lot of fun? Nobody warned me about hamster cages Love, Janice

Not what I signed up for...

I have to get this off my mind. I have worked so hard the last two weeks, that I'm suffering from an anxiety complex, and that's not good. That's not what I thought I was getting into when I started writing my Memoirs. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun. Well, it was! When I was writing. But now that I've completed most of the writing, it seems like the fun has gone out of it, and now I have to get down and work. Maron Mundy, the woman who is putting my chapters into manuscript form came to the house last week and wants all the lists of chapters numbered in sequential order, then she will send the entire list to me and I can start revising the chapters to their final perfection. Just one slight problem: I can't put them in order till I re-read them all so I know when they took place, or at least under which SUBJECT to put them, and so many of them are titled "Anecdotes", "Bits and Pieces", "General" and "Untitled 1, 2, and 3". Now that's a doozy, if you want to know what it's about on the list, right? So my first advice today to those of you contemplating Writing, is: For God's sake, LABEL your articles! I've now taken all the PILES of papers (duplicates and ten-tricates of all the articles I ever wrote) {and printed out for the Writers Group to critique} and keep putting them in labeled piles on the bed every morning and stacking them in one pile every evening so I can use the bed for what it was intended. Sleep, although I'm not getting all that much... The Subject titles are under papers labeled Early Years, Teenage, Auburn, State Prison, Marriage,Fritz, Travel, jewelry, studio, Life in Switzerland, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain, England, Canada and Tucson. Are you beginning to get the picture? Some of the piles are already two inches high, and I still have two more stacks of FIVE inches to sort out! Trying to make Order out of Chaos is not my thing; I'm better at Creating. Maybe the Covid is finally making a dent in my equillibrium; it's doing it to everyone else -- why not me? So I will sort. And Number. And Revise. and eventually I will make Order out of Chaos. Where have all the flowers gone? Till soon, Janice