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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Eve Gaddy: The Allure of Notes

I have an endless fascination with notes. I write them. Everywhere. On stickies, in notebooks, on magazines and random pieces of paper. On napkins, paper towels and tissues. I even use the notes in my phone sometimes, or the note function on my computer.

I write notes about my books. Notes out the ying-yang. I have attempted (note the word attempted) to organize my note taking by buying several hundred different notebooks. Okay, that's an exaggeration... Maybe. But I do have a lot. I try to have one for each book or series I'm working on or will be working on. I have one for songs because I have a song of the day I put on social media, as well as a playlist for every book. I have one labeled Miscellaneous. I have another labeled social media, computer stuff and Scrivener.


You know what they have in common? They could all be labeled miscellaneous. The song notebook comes closest to have nothing but songs in it. But even that one has some random notes about something completely unrelated to music. Just a few pages, though.

The problem is that I never seem to have the correct notebook when I need it. And if I can't find the notebook immediately, I grab the nearest one. Or the nearest available writing surface. Consequently, when I go looking for notes say, on my newest Whiskey River book, One Night With The Bad Boy:



I have to look through nearly every one of my notebooks to find what I'm looking for. Not to mention, the loose pieces of paper with notes on them. Often, when and if I do find what I'm looking for, I can't read my handwriting. It's very frustrating. Every few weeks (months?) I go through and try to reorganize my notes. That lasts for a day or two.

Some of you might say, "Eve, why don't you look for the correct notebook until you find it and then write down whatever you need to?" That's a great idea. Unfortunately, I've learned from experience that if I wait, even long enough to find the proper notebook, I risk losing the thought completely. And that's even worse than finding a note about One Night With the Bad Boy in the notebook about The Billionaire's Charade:



Do you do what I do? Or are you far more organized? And if you are, can you help me?

The Billionaire's Charade will be available September 21. Look for all the Amalfi Nights Billionaire's Books:

Amalfi Night Billionaires Series
Book 1: The Billionaire's Temptation by Katherine Garbera out now!
Book 2: The Billionaire's Deception by Mimi Wells out now!
Book 3: The Billionaire's Betrayal by Nancy Robards Thompson 8/31
Book 4: The Billionaire's Secret by Kathleen O'Brien 9/14
Book 5: The Billionaire's Charade by Eve Gaddy 9/21

One Night With The Bad Boy is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Ibooks and Google Play.


6 comments:

Laney4 said...

I too have tons of notes. I keep scrap paper in my purse (old monthly calendar with pages to rip out), beside my "television chair" (old business cards, envelopes, anything that I don't "need", usually out of the mail), above the fridge (tiny notebooks in bad shape), in two separate drawers in my office (8.5x11 pages plus smaller scraps), and I write IN my monthly calendar in my office as well as ON my magnetized monthly calendar on my fridge.
The trick for ME is to put those scraps either in my jeans pocket or in my outside purse pocket so that when I get home I can rewrite them on the appropriate lists, usually in my office. Sometimes I have a whack of notes sitting on the kitchen chair waiting to go downstairs to my office, but I make it a priority to rewrite them where they belong as soon as possible. It might take a week, mind you, and some of those notes will be invalid by then, but it's the best I can do.
I've thought about carrying a handheld tape recorder on me to record the notes instead, but that seems too bulky. With today's generation, they would probably record onto their iPhone (or whatever they are called), but mine is old school and doesn't have Internet (although I'll occasionally text a draft to myself if I'm out without my purse and need to remember a phone number, for example).
MANY people think I WASTE time with all my notes, but who is it that they contact first for information? Yup. Me. Because I'm "organized". I have separate file folders in my email and keep certain emails for well over a year "just in case". I record what happens every day on a single sheet of binder paper per day, then put the highlights on my monthly calendar for an easy quick glance later (and, yes, I DO refer to those notes more often than not). I have binders with TV shows I've watched so that I don't watch the same one twice. I have binders with books I've read (since 2009 when I started to blog) so that my notes will refresh my memory as to what I did or did not like (and I can blog or do a review on it). I have recipe cards with author names on them to record contests I've entered and books I want to read. I have a list in my purse of books I've read by my favorite authors so that I don't buy a second by mistake.
The bottom line is that notes make us more organized and free up our mind to embrace even more information. Don't stop!

Unknown said...

Wow, Laney, you're so organized! I'm envious! I will try some of your suggestions.:)
Thanks for the tips!

dstoutholcomb said...

I am the queen of post-it notes! I have them everywhere--they're the perfect size.

Denise

Unknown said...

I love post it notes too, Denise. They come in all sizes and colors and shapes. I can't stop myself from buying them.:)

Anonymous said...

Three words: God bless Evernote. ;-) Oh, I still have paper notes strewn about, but I just recently realized I can take photos of them and file them in Evernote, after I've had time to decide where they go. I'll never give up paper notes and Post-its, but it's nice to know my notes are preserved electronically, too.

All of this is, of course, based on the assumption that by the time I get to photographing it I can A)read it, and B)remember what the heck it means or refers to, and/or why I made the note in the first place!

Unknown said...

I have a tape from National about Evernote and another friend of mine loves it too. I think it goes with Scrivener, which I love. I'll have to try it. Once I finish this book.:)

I think I need paper notes, though. Something about the actual writing. Pen in hand. Or pencil. Or marker. Or crayon....