I am happy to announce that, with all of the obstacles that seemed to present themselves directly in my face last week, I was still able to achieve my weekly word count goal. I’m not going to say that all my currently typed-up words are in pristine shape with no possibility of revision, but I am saying that I got some promising content down in black and white. I’m sure I will be tweaking things continuously as new ideas pop into my head or better ways of wording things surface. And week 6 was spent in some of that mode with the majority of writing devoted to developing the bulk of my first chapter; it’s almost complete. I anticipate finishing up on chapter 1 this week and getting knee-deep into chapter 2. With the next chapter awaiting my attention and chapter outline preparation a must-have before writing, the thought brings me right back to the need for continuous organization.
As an aspiring writer, forging my way on to the road to authorship (by a lot of trial and error, I might add), I’m discovering just how vital the element of organization is in managing the writing process. If you’ve been following my progress, you’ll recall that week 4 was my wake up call for the need to stop the chaotic madness and get some writing “housekeeping” items straightened out. Then, week 5 became that answer to the call for some immediate organization to commence. Consequently, my writing schedule is becoming clearer and easier to navigate as I have it written down on paper instead of sloshing around in my head with all the other bajillion writing details floating around in there. When I was younger, able to absorb and effortlessly retain loads of information in my fail-proof memory, and had no dependent parties relying on me to exert additional mental matter in thinking for them at times, I was pretty golden with leaving things up to the inner complexities of my youthful mind. Not any more, though. I love lists, planners, calendars, sticky notes, notebooks, recorders, and practically any visual and/or audio aid that will help in capturing some of those details that an overloaded mind may need to dump somewhere else. I’m currently using all of the above items during this writing process and will probably add more organizational aids to the mix as time unwinds.
Furthermore, I’ve invested in an inexpensive, portable filing system to get all of my paperwork in order. It’s amazing how I’ve managed to collect so many pieces and collections of paper, containing my writing efforts for all platforms, writing research conducted, notes and reminders, to-do lists, and the like. I had initially been housing all of these items loosely in a backpack that I would carry around with me like a diaper bag for a new momma, but this method quickly proved to be counter-productive. Although my writing paraphernalia was all (for the most part because there were some outlying stragglers) in this backpack, it was still hard to find things. There was no rhyme nor reason and it would take a minute or two to find items in the backpack, especially as I continued to add more and more things to it. Kind of reminds me of my purse situation. I purposely got a smaller purse so that I could put less things in there and easily find the stuff that I needed to when I needed to; but it seems like I still try to stuff the same amount of items that a larger purse would carry in this more compact space. Apparently, I never quite graduated from my days of diaper bag toting. Those bags were absolutely the perfect size to carry everything you could possibly need with no chance of running out of room when using such a catch-all. Anyway, my new file-and-carry system is perfect for my current requirements and comes packed with hanging file folders, tabs/labels, manila file folders, and enough capacity to comfortably house all of my writing paperwork. Look at me getting things together… I feel like such a grown-up.
Let me close with some writing oddities I’ve picked up on myself:
- I’ve become increasingly aware of the number of Hallmark Channel movies that have writing-based themes. Do I notice this because I’m an aspiring writer?
- I have experienced some falling-asleep-at-my-computer scenarios when either viewing some content creation videos or while actually doing some writing. Needless to say, this happens in the wee hours of the morning when I probably should be asleep in the bed. I think I’ll work on tempering this pattern, because this can’t be good for anybody.
- I also have found myself (less frequently than the above items) waking up abruptly in the middle of the night with some great writing ideas for the book, blog, or YouTube, which I end up writing down right then and there before I forget them. Or, I end up having a hard time falling asleep at times because my mind is churning with writing visions dancing around in my head and I can’t shut them down until my mind crashes on its own timing. Can any other content creators relate to this phenomenon?
Well, there you have it… another week of self discovery. Where will the next week take me? I can’t wait to find out.
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