This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “confusion,” comes to us from Dan. Check out his blog here!

Now that I’m in my sixties, I expect to get confused occasionally. Or at least my younger self expected it.

And yeah, sometimes I do.

But when I sit down to analyze why, I realize that if I’m focused on something, I don’t get confused at all. It’s when I’m thinking too many things at once.

And yeah, maybe I used to be able to juggle a thousand things in my head and not forget why I walked into the kitchen, but in my defense, I think I’m juggling three thousand at the moment.

Take my writing for instance.

In the space of ten and a half months (November 1, 2023-September 18, 2024), I wrote three novels in a series—approximately 271,000 words total. Now I’m editing two of them at the same time.

Which makes sense because although they’re about different but related main characters, the second half of Book One takes place at the same time as the first half of Book Two.

It’s all about the details. If it’s snowing on January 12th in the first book, I have to make sure it’s snowing at the same consistency on January 12th in the second book.

If information comes to light on the common enemy in both books, I have to ensure everyone is on the same page, both literally and figuratively, twice.

You can see where that might be confusing at times.

Thank goodness I have a program like Plottr to help me keep track of the timelines.

Would I have been able to keep track of all that without a program back in my twenties? Maybe. But I didn’t have all the responsibilities I have now on top of juggling two books simultaneously.

A thousand things vs. three thousand.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

This enterprising post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Dan for the prompt!