Congruent - 6:37 pm on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

NO MUSIC (with lyrics), NO RADIO.

I agree, bullet points are helpful. It's weird but I try to keep the bullets I've started out with on a bulletin board, close, at eye level so I don't have to lose my train of thought rummaging to find them. Makes a world of difference to me.

Timeline (like bullet points but horizontal). Write it anywhere. Got this when I went to Faulkner's house outside Memphis. He'd scrawled something from Absalom, Absalom or Sound and The Fury on the wall in red crayon as if to say, "Dangit, I'm not going to keep this straight if I don't draw it out." If you can look at it while you're working three times, it'll be engraved upon your consciousness.