"Do not forget" notebook

Well, many times, I have said I'm a Panster when it comes to writing. And I still think that I am. I never do an outline of my novel. Goddess knows, I don't do characters' bio or do the charts, diagrams or well, all that the Plotters do. 

My stories all start in my head, triggered with one event or an incident, a song and its lyric is as good as any other thing. And this is it. As soon as I have time, I sit down - usually this is after my family falls asleep - and my writing process starts. 

Choosing the main characters' names is also a thing, I need to think of or make up. Somehow the names of the supporting characters pop up as I write. The story is growing and its revealing in front of my eyes when I type. 

I can confess and this is not hard, I do kinda know the end - that is going to be happy - for heaven's sake I'm a Romantic suspense writer after all. 

But I realised as the story reveals before me, I kinda forget about some things I wrote before. They might not be big ones, but I know these things must be giving my editor Alison quite a headache. And frankly myself too. 

Trying to remember what I wrote on page seven, when I am already on page one-hundred-sixty-six is not simple. And it's not really welcomed by the readers to read that the cat was black on a page twenty and white on page seventy-one. 

Even when I was writing my WIP II - which is now finished and submitted - I did it the way, that if I was unsure what I wrote, I went back reread what I had written and then continued the story. Believe me - it's time consuming. Instead of writing I was reading my own novel. Too many times.

So, what am I showing you in this post is not my 'plotter' notebook. Nope. It's my "DO NOT FORGET" notebook. I don't write in it what I plan to happen in my novel, instead of that, I write things I know I'll need to know when the story will be deep within its twirls. 

So yes, this lovely notebook - by the way, I'm a real sucker for these kinds of things - has now became my new helper. 

And to be honest, I like it. I don't need to scroll through the pages anymore...