Tumblemoose's Writing Area

I am a no-clutter freak.  There.  I’ve said it.  Can’t stand the stuff.  I am forever fighting battles because if there is stuff (papers, etc…) laying around, I’m going to scoop them up and put them somewhere (if you come to my house, don’t open any closets   ).  Kidding!  I put stuff in appropriate places.  It still irritates the clutter bugs I’ve lived with.  In this post I’m going to write a bit about ways to get and stay organized to help make your writing life easier, more productive and less cluttered.

A room with a view

I very much hope that you are one of the fortunate that have the luxury of a writing area separate from common living areas. If not, try and do everything in your power to make that happen – it is crucial to being organized. You have to take your writing seriously, you wouldn’t try and do online degrees in a chaotic space, would you? You’d make room for yourself and your thoughts which is why having separate rooms for living and work are so desirable. Now, I’m not saying that you cannot be organized if this luxury isn’t available, I’m just saying it will be more difficult and will require a bit more discipline and creativity on your part.

Here is an important thought for writers: Clutter kills focus.

General office organizing tips

• Make it handy.  File cabinets and accessories should be within arms reach.  Having to get out of the chair can make you lose your motivation and is a great excuse to stop working.
• As much as possible, only have the project you are working on in front of you.  It helps to focus on what you are doing at the moment. De-clutter!!!
• A file cabinet is a necessity.  A file system is critical to becoming and staying organized.  We’ll talk more about this in the paper organization section.
• A calendar.  I use a desk pad.  It also serves as a scratch pad area.  Each month I fold up the previous calendar and put it in a file.  At a glance I can see what’s going on and I always know exactly where it is.
• Get a small whiteboard for projects.  I use it as a visual reminder for the last time I’ve touched a project.

Electric organization

Here are some tips for keeping your non-paper writing projects in order:

• There are four main areas that must be managed, and managed well if you are to be organized in your writing: Email, word processing, web and images.
• The key to becoming and remaining organized in these key areas is proper foldering.
• Assuming foldering is a word (and the red squiggly lines tell me otherwise), taking the time to set up accurate and appropriate folders will save you countless hours of searching and ensures you don’t “lose” any items.  If you were forward thinking enough to do this when you first started, congrats – you are way ahead of the game.  If you are playing catch up, no worries, mate.  So are most of us.
• Email – Set up folders for contacts, invoices, paypal or other payment services.  I also have a folder for blog articles to read ( if I get an interesting rss email and I don’t have the time at the moment, I”ll move it there).  I have a folder for Tumblemoose Writing Services and I have sub-folders for each client or project.  Keep the clutter out of your inbox! As email arrives, do something with it.  It gets deleted or moved to the appropriate folder.  If it is something I need to respond to, I leave it in the inbox until handled.  This gives me a running visual on what needs to be done.
• Word Processing – Many of the email concepts apply.  Set up folders and sub folders.  Mine are set up in “My Documents” and include folders for Tumblemoose with sub folders for each specific client or project.  I also have folders for fiction, contests, queries and finally for the business end including invoices and other written correspondence.
• Web – I can’t stress enough the importance of proper bookmarking.  When I stumble across a site or article that may be useful I bookmark it into an appropriate folder.  Trust me, it doesn’t take too long to have hundreds of bookmarks so, no slacking on this one, fellow scribes.  My folders include sites that may be useful for a particular blog or project.
• Images – Saving images from your camera or your stock sites requires good folder placement although not as specific as the other areas.  Sometimes I’ll find the perfect image for a post that is not necessarily in the folder that is on topic with the post.

The paper trail

It’s amazing.  So many of us in this electronic age are afraid of paper.  No fear, here.  While a great deal of your organization can take place electronically, it is just smart to have a good system to organize what paper may come your way.  Some of the paper I organize includes queries and completed manuscripts as well as business related contracts.  I don’t print correspondence generally, but if I have a magazine article or book proposal in the works, I will set up a folder for that specific project and pop any written correspondence there.

Paper tips:

• Get a file cabinet.  Even an el-cheapo from a garage sale will do.  Hanging files and file folders are also necessary.  If you’d like to color code them then go right ahead, but it’s not a necessity.
• Have a section for the business end of things.  Include folders for contracts, owner manuals, contacts (business cards and such) invoices and receipts.
• Keep a section for writing folders.  You can have folders for queries sent, queries TO send and then individual folders for queries that have received a positive response and are now projects.

Last, but not least

One of the best organizational tools that I use every day is a to do list.  I start the day with this, and have for 17 years.  I keep a legal pad and each day I make a list of what I need to accomplish that day.  I leave a few spaces between each line item.  I check off each item as it is completed and no, I don’t put them in any order of priority.  Often this pad will be used to jot notes, phone numbers or other things specific to a particular item.  The next day, if there is something that didn’t get checked, it moves to that days to do list.  I have a folder that I keep for the daily to do lists as I move to the next day.  It has become an invaluable tool to refresh me in terms of phone numbers and conversations.

I hope that this post on organizing your writing has motivated you to implement some of these strategies.  I will say that there are as many ways to organize as there are writers.  If something doesn’t work for you, feel free to discard it and find something that does work.

I’m curious to see what other writers do to remain organized.  let’s hear it folks.  What tips do you have?