RomanceEverAfter

The Writing Craft:
Self-Help for Writers

Clutter Busting
By Lori Soard
(continued)

If you put off answering mail, it can quickly get away from you. Try to file mail away (or throw it away) as soon as possible after it enters your office. Answer email as quickly as possible for the same reason. Fern Michaels had some humorous comments for how to deal with mail that overwhelms you. 

"I try my best to stay on top of it often getting up at four in the morning to do a lot of it. When it gets away from me, I toss it in the air and the first dozen get answered until I have to do it again. I kid you not. Right now on snail mail, I'm a month behind. Emails just five days behind."

I love my local office supply store. I love paper and pens and notebooks and pretty stationary. I also love a good deal and if anything is on sale, I'll buy it in quantity. This isn't a good idea when it starts to invade your writing space. Try not to buy more supplies than you'll use in a two or three month period. If you're tight on writing space, you may want to only buy a month in advance. There are some great online services now for buying and printing postage as you need it, such as stamps.com.

Keeping your favorite items around you can sometimes motivate you to write or niggle loose a new story idea. Often, the feeling of warmth a favorite childhood teddy bear creates can help a writer keep writing late into the night. Get rid of the clutter but don't get rid of things that speak to your heart and soul. Of course if last month's phone bill speaks to your soul because it has the phone call you made to your new agent, then ignore this advice and just follow the prioritize rule.

In Feng Shui, "less is more" is the principle that helps many people get rid of clutter. Although she warns that the elements of Feng Shui are very complicated and writers should do more research, Sally Painter had a few words of advice to offer on basic Feng Shui design.

A large part of Feng Shui is common sense such as no clutter in desk drawers, no clutter in closets or file cabinets, and well, basically no clutter. The phrase, less is more rings true. If you think of the very air we breathe as being alive with participles of energy on a very atomic level, then you can begin to see it as a living organism that needs the surrounding space to be as open as possible so it can move freely. This is a very basic mental approach to understanding Feng Shui, but can assist you as you experiment."

If clutter creates stress in your life, then make it a priority to eradicate it from every corner of your office. Brenda Chin comments, "I find my stress level runs parallel to the state of my desk.  The messier it is, the more messed up I get. So, it's in my best interest to keep things under control." 

There are a few authors who say the clutter doesn't bother them. Bob Gossard offers a unique perspective. "Everyone works in different manners ... some are meticulous to a fault, and others just revel in clutter. So everyone must find their own medium when they write!"

Whether you revel in your clutter or your blood pressure insists the extra paper and supplies must go, try to make your office a place where you can work effectively. Happy Clutter Busting!

Lori Soard is the author of Housebreaking A Husband which has gotten rave reviews from Midwest Books Review, the editor of Word Beams, Word Museum, best-selling author Fern Michaels, Maggie Davis and dozens of other authors and readers who say they're putting the romantic comedy on their keeper shelves.

To read a free preview of Housebreaking A Husband go to www.housebreakingahusband.com or www.lorisoard.com. To read reviews or order Housebreaking A Husband go to www.amazon.com and type in: Housebreaking A Husband. This article may be reprinted in its entirety (including this footer) in any publication in any format.

Return to The Writing Craft

Return to Self-Help for Writers