A Writer’s Organization

I attended a writer’s conference several years ago to meet and listen to one of my favorite authors. Not only did I meet and like her, but I met other published authors and those that are struggling to get published. We all hung out together over the course of four days. Lunches and dinners were filled with me sitting almost dumbstruck, or awestruck as they passed around tales of their writing experiences and hassles and tricks of the trade. All of a sudden they all get quiet and turn to me and ask how I organize myself before, during, and after my writing.

I was thrown off, to be honest, I had no clue there was a process of organization I needed. Then I began to freak out, what if I was missing a very key element? OK, apart from the fact that I never finish anything I start…..but we’ll get back to that. What if all I needed to become a successful author was a great organizational process? My process up until then had always been to sit down and pound out the story that was in my head and do a little research when the need arose.

The writer’s around the table began to tell me of their different methods and rituals and I was doing my best to memorize them all, because I had none and wanted to incorporate theirs. Writer A was definitely a type A, she mapped out everything, started off with an outline, made charts, graphs, the works, and then used a nifty little writing software. Writer B would brew a huge pot of coffee, buy special pens and write in notebooks, where she left the margins open for notes. Writer C did everything by his computer where he kept meticulous files of research. At this point in my life I was handwriting all my stories, so I felt a bit outdated.

I came home from the conference with a new resolve. I was going to get organized. I invested money in buying every book on writing known to man. To call me obsessed was an understatement. I read all the books, underlined passages, highlighted things for months, until a writer friend of mine asked when the last time I wrote anything was. I realized then that I was spending all my time reading about writing and not writing. So I felt like I was back at square one. I then emailed a writer from the conference about my dilemma. She told me that I had to find my own way and use what works for me to get my writing done. I didn’t need a fancy system. Just doing what I was doing was probably good enough.

My life is cluttered, but my writing life is all in my head. It’s all there for me to pluck out into my computer or onto the page and I don’t have to spend a ton of money on how to write books. I already know how to write, I just need to do it.