Eleanor Tatum

You are too young to remember when most outside-the -home working women were nurses, teachers, or secretaries.  The secretaries had to to learn a strange language called shorthand and they often recorded it by hand on a stranger looking thing called a steno pad. No, it’s not electronic nor does it have any apps.

They are rare but they can be found and they’re useful, really. They are about the size of a Kindle or Nook but not nearly as expensive. I have found it to be handy as a DOW divider and a writer’s organizer. For those of you not following my ruckuses or ramblings, a DOW is that demanding other world. You know…the one that keeps you from writing. Ah, I can see the lights coming on now.

Anyway, the steno pad…what I do is record (now, this recording involves another antique, a pencil or pen) my DOW lists starting from the front, only because that’s the world that keeps me feed and relatively safe. These lists go beyond market reminders or the cleaners. They are journals about my family and ponline shopping tips, and housekeeping demands.  I often have to remind myself to dust, no, I need to order myself to dust.

From the back I start my sane lists, my sassy lists, my more often than not soothing writing-world lists.  Each morning I record what I hope to conquer. Revisions of a chapter, research my characters’ employment, and even sensational blog thoughts. The next day I use that list to record my writing-world accomplishments in my writing journal, (not a steno pad, and that’s another blog) using the items I checked off because, yes, I was indeed productive. All right, sometimes I have to write, “See Above Lists”.

Ah,alas,I know what you’re thinking.  What happens when the pages run out?  What happens when the pages met?  Silly and adorable reader, I get another pad.  Keep several handy.