Edit: By "line" I don't mean the storyline but the literal, written line on the page.
If it ever happened to you that you were reading and some kind of distraction caused you to raise you eyes just for a moment, but enough to make you miss the line you were reading so you have to scan the text to find that line again, you know how annoying that is.
For example, consider the following scenario:
A: That twinkling light over there is really annoying. Everytime I see it from the corner of my eye I tend to look at it and I _____. I've literally _____ three times already!
Note that while this may cause you to lose track of the story and force you to re-read the whole paragraph, that's not necessarily true. For example, after raising my eyes for just a second I still know what's going on, but I need to find the right line. If it takes too long, I may not remember anymore what was happening and I may have to go back a couple of sentences. In my mother tongue there are two distinct expressions, that, though interchangeable to some extent, have slightly different meanings. One is more suited for when you just have to find the line, and the other for when you lose the thread of the story because you either took too long to find that line, or because the story was too complicated, or maybe because you're tired or for any other reason.
Are there two distinct expressions to distinguish between both things in English?
Best Answer
You lose your place as in
You can lose your place two different ways: you can lose track of what word you are on at any point, or you can lose track of what line you are on when moving from one line to the next.
About forgetting what you've just read because you lose focus or something cut you away from the story I think you can say lose track of the story like the line as you mentioned in your note. When you lose track of a story, you forget it. As in,