My Closet
My closet is an abyss. A giant, hungry maw that swallows up clothes, my knitting yarn, shoes, boots, and mess. Mess? Well, sure, because if company is coming, everything gets shoved in it.
My closet also contains several suit jackets. And skirts. From when I went into an office. Fifteen years ago. I haven't worn a dress or skirt in 15 years. Not even to weddings. So the fact that I am keeping them? I think, "I should just give away this black blazer." But then I look at the cut of it and think, "But it's such a great blazer . . . maybe one day I will have an occasion to wear it."
Periodically, I purge. I go with a ruthless mindset and get rid of anything I haven't worn in a year. Which is what those organizing articles in magazines will tell you to do. The closet will look great for a bit until its hungry maw asks for more sacrifices.
So is it any wonder my kids got me THIS for Christmas? It sort of worked. Only sort of.
My closet is my nemesis. And my friend.
And that closet is a bit like my writing files.
I drag around story ideas for ten years or more, positive I might someday do something with them. Doesn't much matter that an idea is not my voice and doesn't fit me. I know the "cut" of it or the fabric is special.
I also have files of mere sentences--not enough for a full outfit. But I think, "If I just keep with it, it could TURN INTO a complete outfit." You never know.
Periodically, I purge my files. But then new files replace them.
I have files needing tailoring. They're "almost there," but need pressing, editing, maybe even hemming.
I have Shiny New Ideas in there. They still have the price tags on them.
Most of all, my cluttered closet is the state of my writing mind, which is nearly never orderly. I try. But ideas crowd and push and beckon, and all the Wonder Hangers in the world can't save me.
How about you?
33 comments:
My computer reflects the kind of creative chaos(if that is the right word) you discuss today. I have manuscripts in several places and at several stages of completion. I have brief ideas. I have folders devoted to particular books.
I don't like writing the same thing twice. Maybe that desire to do something new helps lead to the chaos.
I'm working on an outline. I've tried this before because the chaos that is my novel is not working.
Clean is nice if you're in the kitchen baking. It's intimidating if you're trying to write.
I think I mentioned this before, but I don't have a closet, I have a junk yard. There is plenty of space for more half written stories I discard, some cut pieces from WIP's that simply didn't work, but I loved.
I would love to have a closet. It sounds so convenient to a junk yard. And most of the stuff isn't cold, wet, or rusted.
Is it too late to trade mine on a closet? Do I have to purge stuff every year? Or can I wait a decade or two?
awp
I'm way to organized for my own good. Yesterday I did a complete overhaul of my bookshelves.
I write that way too. I need everything in its place and will even rewrite my notes so they look orderly. I took 12 pages of notes over the weekend and I'm debating typing them all up. If I do, it'll be locked in my brain, but that's a lot of time to give to my compulsion.
Joe:
I often wonder if I dropped dead tomorrow, what my family would think as they deleted my files and cleaned up my computer. LOL!
Richmond:
I cleaned my kitchen today in anticipation of lots of cooking.
:-)
Allen:
It probably depends on how big your junk is. LOL!
Melanie:
WOW . . . way different technique.
:-)
You and me both, Melanie (and why am I oddly not surprised by that?). I'm an extremely organized writer. My notes are tabbed and notated, depending on their purpose, I color-code my query tracker, and last night I sat down and did a large graph of spells and their components, of all things. For me, I find it's easier to write if I'm not worried about clutter and losing stuff along the way.
I keep a notebook for each book and I've yet to figure out how to organize it. I tend to just open to a clean page and take notes, never to look at it again. But writing is how I fix stuff in my brain, so I guess I retain the important stuff. I also have a "revision" file on the computer which I keep constantly running. I'll use it at some point.
I keep thinking there must be a logical process to organizing that notebook, but I've yet to find it.
Incidentally, that link doesn't let you back out of it. Slightly annoying.
I almost never toss out an idea file. It doesn't take up any space, really, and when I'm stuck for something to write about, or need some inspiration, I just cruise through the ideas folder.
I have deleted a few of them over the years, but the vast majority stay...just in case.
And I finally just got rid of the last suit I kept from my personnel manager days.
Oh, how I love your parables. Preach from the Mt. sister! :)
Lurker, that comforts me that you write that way too. :)
I keep a notebook for each novel, too, SS@S! It's evolved over the years. I used to write out the entire first draft in notebooks - so there would be two or three for a manuscript. The first typed version was essentially my first edit.
Nowadays, I buy a three subject notebook. The first section is devoted to characters only. It's where I keep the character sketches and pertinent information - odd things, like birthdates or favorite foods or relatives' names and family trees... things that come to me as I'm fleshing them out but may or may not make it into the ms. Starting at the second section, I jot notes and write bits of scenes I'm trying to work out in my head. I don't write much of the ms. itself longhand anymore, for the most part.
I also find it's helpful to print up blank spaced calendars that span the time period of the novel - it helps me to stay accurate with the dates things happen and I make notes here and there on the calendar so I can make sure I'm not accidentally having the time frame off in the novel. It's a pet peeve of mine to find the timeline off in novels. For my mg. I not only printed up a calendar, but noted all of the Cubs season schedule (wins/losses/interesting plays, and whether it was home or away) and I checked the weather reports and noted that, too, to make sure I wasn't setting a scene that had my characters running around in tee shirts when it was actually 50 and raining all day.
All of this sounds way more organized than I am. I'm organized with writing projects. Or at least organized enough to keep each ms. and all of the research for it together. On my computer, I keep a folder called 'novel ideas' with bits of shiny new ideas that I add to when the mood strikes. Sometimes it's a quick blurb. Sometimes a whole scene. I keep a seperate folder for article and essay ideas, and another yet for short stories. My documents folder is a hodgepodge of everything else.
Now my closets on the other hand - bring a search party if you're going in.
LOL, Erica! Yes, exactly! :-)
Melanie,
Yeah, we can't let those Messy Marvins and their sloppy-casual workspaces intimidate us into thinking that neatly arranged pens and spotless desks are somehow "wrong."
*high fives Monkey*
Did you see my newly arranged bookshelves on Facebook?
Lurker:
BOY, do I know your organizational skills. :-) Those index cards. Remember? ;-)
E
Oh, I remember. You should see my story notebook for FOSD. Three ring. Tabs with labeled sections. It's like a little reference book ... but I use it ALL the time.
My closet looks like the inside of my head, but my writing files are all organized. I don't organize anything but my writing files and photos. And I do it because I have to, not because it I enjoy it or that it comes naturally. I forget, a lot. If I don't have it all in a specific and obvious place it will be lost forever. That gives me major sad.
But the inside of my head looks exactly like my closet does. Especially today, after my DD dumped all my boxed up stuff out. Though I'd be willing to bet, that the inside of every woman's mind looks that way. lol
What helps me purge the closet is to remind myself if I give that awesome-but-underused jacket to charity, then someone who really needs it is going to use it.
And it should be used, right? It's too good to throw out; that's why you're keeping it in the first place. So give it away so it can be used.
Starbucks:
I keep a notebook for Magickeepers, and it's a mess. I can't organize it either.
E
writtenwyrd:
I have said before on here . . . the first line in The Roofer I had carried through multiple shorts stories (where it never fit) for over 15 years until it found it's spot.
E
Realm:
LOL! :-)
Merry:
That sounds like a really awesome system.
Lurker:
OK, I haven't heard the expression "Messy Marvin" since second grade. ;-)
E
Crystal:
My photos are in complete disarray. I keep thinking I will scrapbook. Then the idea just seems too overwhelming.
E
jj:
Mine always goes to charity, too. That helps . . . :-) But I have this ONE designer blazer . . .
;-)
I have a bin(that I can fit in when it's empty - do you know how hard it is to find a bin that a six-foot-one teenager can fit in?) that is full of old note books, scraps of paper, and stories from junior high. I keep telling myself I'll go through it one day...but in truth I'm a little scared of it. Spiders fast breeders in the TN heat.
I have three jump drives that hold my current work on. Other than that I'm about as organized as a car crash.
I'm watching a show called Hoarders on TLC, and I'm about to have some sort of panic attack. I hate clutter. I've always hated clutter.
Same with my writing. If there's a sentence, or even a word, I think is superfluous, I have to toss it. Have to.
To me, it's liberating to be rid of things I don't need.
JT:
I used to have a big trunk full of old journals and stories. At a major purge in my life, I burned it all and it was very freeing.
E
Jude:
It's liberating for me, too, when I actually do it.
And those hoarders. Wacky.
I have a closet full of clothes in California, where I don't live, but I won't give them away as I think I might use them someday.
I also do the same with writing ideas. I keep ones, that totally aren't me, tucked away in case I use them one day. Cause you just never know. :)
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