by Rachel D. Russell, @RDRussellWrites
You’ve seen the headlines—decluttering and minimalism seem to be everywhere. Whether you’re on a total buy-in or a skeptic, there’s definitely something you can glean from the movement.
The space we have is finite and, for me, a clear workspace helps me focus on my writing. It limits my distractions, streamlines my household cleaning & organization, and helps me steward what God has given me.
Writers can accumulate a lot of stuff. We read for fun, we read for research, we’re often jotting notes and tracking ideas. We have drafts and feedback. Over time, it can all become a bit of a beast.
Ready for an office makeover but not sure where to start? Take a look at these three areas and see if you can streamline.
- Craft books you aren’t going to use.
As a bona fide bibliophile, I get it. It seems almost offensive to make this suggestion, however, I’d never ask you to do something I haven’t done myself.
A while back, I listened to a story crafting class and, in it, the instructor mentioned one of their own craft books was not currently in print (due to no fault of the book’s). Well, being the intrepid student that I am, I promptly logged on to Amazon and had one of the remaining copies of that book on its way to me. My postal carrier would have the tome to me in less than 24 hours.
I slide back into my seat, cat in my lap, and proceeded to listen to the rest of the class.
Five hours later, it became clear I’d made a grievous mistake. Though the instructor was learned and highly regarded, a well-known fiction author—his style of writing was not for me. In fact, some of his instruction was diametrically opposed to everything I hold dear in story as a reader and have been taught as a writer. Does it work for him? Absolutely. Could it work for others, particularly in his genre? Definitely.
When the book arrived, it confirmed everything I suspected. Instead of berating myself or allowing it to take up real estate on my shelf, I rehomed it to someone who writes in the genre of the instructor. I turned my lesson-learned into a blessing for someone else.
Subsequently, I went through the rest of my shelves and culled the books that I’d outgrown, were not useful to me, or were no longer needed.
Purge your shelves of any craft books that don’t serve you and consider how those books can now bless an author who will use them.
- The pens weighing down your book bag and covering your desk.
I won’t tell you to toss them if they work (and you’ll use them), but you probably don’t have to haul around seven pounds of writing implements wherever you go.
I recently cleaned out my take-everywhere bag and I had 23 pens with me. Seriously—23. I’ll bet you might have a similar stock. Trust me, I’m not judging. They each have a different flow, a different color, serve a different purpose. Well, to some degree.
But, let’s be real. At no time have I ever had to draw on my endless supply of pens like Legolas’ arrows in his quiver. It just hasn’t happened.
A single pen weighs a negligible amount, but, after clearing out all but four (come on, you didn’t expect me to only carry one pen, right?), I realized that I’d been weighing myself down with the “what-if.” What if I need it? What if I don’t have the right color?
Do you know what? Never, ever have I sat down to write something and said, “Oh, no, I wish I could write this note with the (insert color I didn’t have) pen. What I have is always enough.
Get a pretty mug of pen holder and clear out the plethora of writing implements you’re hauling around and covering your workspace with. Toss the ones that don’t write and rehome others you don’t use.
- The stacks of paper.
Even in the digital age, writers seem to accumulate a lot of paper. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s okay. We can still be friends.
Paper can abound and confound. The best techniques I’ve found to manage the paper is to create a drop file system. This allows everything to be out of sight but readily retrieved.
Not everything can be filed and I did some deep recycling recently. Those little scrap notes with story ideas? I created a digital story file and wrote them down. The reality is, I’ll find those ideas easily with my digital search function versus thumbing through stacks of odd papers. I also bought a small notebook so I can put story ideas into one hardcopy location, too.
I went through my stacks of critique group write-ups and ensured any changes I was adopting had been put into my manuscript. Then, I shredded the rest.
The paper decluttering took me the longest, but it also produced the greatest results. It will always be an on-going process, but I’m enjoying my clear writing space.
What about you? What areas of your writing life have you decluttered and how has it changed your writing space for the better?
The Ultimate Wellness Journal for Women
This isn’t another diet and exercise journal. If you’ve struggled with weight gain, irritability, fatigue, insomnia or other symptoms, it’s important to track lifestyle factors that affect our hormonal and metabolic processes. Use this journal to start listening to your body and discovering correlations between a variety of lifestyle factors and your symptoms. This eight-week comprehensive journal will help you track your patterns in sleep, non-exercise activity, exercise, body temperature, nutrition, mood, light, and more.
Rachel D. Russell writes contemporary inspirational romance focused on forgiveness, redemption, and grace. She’s a member of Oregon Christian Writer and My Book Therapy’s Novel Academy. She’s currently writing two novels in the Deep Haven series with Sunrise Publishing. When Rachel’s not cantering her horse down the Oregon beaches, she’s probably interrogating her husband on his own military and law enforcement experience to craft believable heroes in uniform. The rest of her time is spent enjoying her active family, including two teens and three keyboard-hogging cats. You can catch up with her at RachelDRussell.com, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.