Writing - Memory

 Unless you have a great memory, you will need to keep a writing diary/file of information to be used or to use again. It may be that you only write one story, and then perhaps you can get away with the occasional note. You might be able to write everything on little scraps of paper; however, if you intend to write more than one story in the same vein, then you need to have a record of the sorts of things that you may need accurate information about to maintain consistency. 

When writing the Steele novels, I soon discovered that I needed to keep accurate records of the types of vehicles my hero liked to drive. Additionally, it was necessary to keep abreast of the latest developments in vehicular technology to keep my stories up-to-date. This type of preparation is necessary to keep your writing current. 

The second tranche of data I needed was a current catalogue of weaponry. This takes me back to an example I never get tired of using, and that is the number of bullets fired by a Colt 45 in cowboy films of the 50's and 60's. Plainly, the magazine of such weapons was a 6-space barrel shape, and yet John Wayne could fire forever seemingly without reloading. Bringing it as current as possible, I spent time researching modern magazine sizes so that I could furnish Steele with the most modern weapons. I believe the biggest magazine was with a Glock handgun of around 19 shells. Probably, well out-of-date. 

My final example is a diary-type record of places visited and activities carried out. This speaks for itself in that you must remain accurate to maintain reality within the fiction that you are producing. 

I'm not a great fan of record keeping, but it saves time in producing a book in that research is not beginning from square one every time you put pen to paper. 

God Bless