Burying Your Work

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Let’s recap the past couple of weeks. I started off talking about the junk drawer of the mind, the ideas and concepts we have started, plan to start or hope to start. Let’s face it; writers can be a little chaotic.

Then I introduced you to a plan to start cleansing that junk drawer. In my last blog I went a little further into the cleansing process.

I ended things by printing off every single writing project I had ever started. Although some were near completion, not one single idea had formulated into a finished piece.

The past several days I have spent time going through my projects. I knew it was time to resurrect some of these projects to life. But it was also time to bury a few.

Let me tell you, this wasn’t easy. But I knew it was the only way to make 2013 a year of actually accomplishing something. It’s as if these projects and ideas were off to the side taunting me. “See, you can’t finish anything!”

Finishing doesn’t necessarily mean picking up where I left off. It could mean letting things go. And that’s just what I did.

I had to bury (permanently get rid of) some projects that I knew would never go anywhere. And if I don’t say so myself, some of these were good ideas.

Yet they had been left unfinished for a year, five years and some as long as a decade. I had to get a grip on reality.

I tossed more than I kept. But I didn’t just throw out the hard copies I had printed. I deleted the document off my computer and then emptied my trash bin so I couldn’t change my mind.

I sat there for a moment. It was gone. The words would never come back. It felt painful. I suppose when you bury something, it’s supposed to.

Yet with death comes life. And that’s what I will be talking about in my next blog. What to do with the writing projects that weren’t buried.

© 2012, Stephanie Romero

And the Cleansing Continues

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Last week I talked about the start of my cleansing…of the junk drawer that fills my writer’s mind. Hopefully you have been able to find a system that works for you, a way to get your thoughts and ambitions organized and your mind clutter-free.

After I accomplished this task, I took on a much bigger (and somewhat painful) project. It was the cleansing of partially started, half-finished and nearly completed writing pieces.

I printed everything that isn’t finished (in my case nothing was finished!) It required a lot of paper and ink but I knew that unless I actually made hard copies, they would continue to remain as saved documents…collecting virtual dust.

After each item was printed, I wrote on the first page what it was (article, story, etc.). It helped me to organize the pieces.

When everything was finally printed, I was amazed at how much I had accomplished. That gave me hope.

But on the other hand, it was also blazingly obvious how little I had actually completed. That brought discouragement.

Then I had to remind myself, that this was the whole purpose of the cleansing. It was to make something of the work I had done and to actually finish something.

Before making any decisions on what I was going to do with what I had printed (which I will get into next week), I filed each piece into its own manila folder. After tucking them away, there was this renewed hope that rose up inside of me.

Now that I have made huge strides toward cleaning out the junk drawer of my mind, I am ready to implement what is useful and toss what isn’t. But I warn you…this will likely be the most difficulty part of the process, as you begin to bury some of those writing projects.

Yet in the end, you will have in front of you something that you are ready to breathe life into. Now that sounds exciting!

The Start of Cleansing

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So last week I shared how I was skipping the whole goal setting thing that I normally do every New Year. I went right to what I am referring to as a cleansing.

The junk drawer of my mind was just too cluttered and disorganized. I needed to get my bearings right if I ever hoped to actually accomplish something this year.

So what I had to do was pull from all the places that have to do with writing. I needed to bring it all together and figure out what I was going to keep and what was going to go.

Your areas might look different than mine. But perhaps by sharing my experience, it will help you to think of places that you need to draw from.

I started with the post-it notes all over my computer. These are the virtual ones pinned to my screen.

They consisted of writing websites to check out, paid freelance work to look into and potential submissions. My goal was to delete every single virtual post-it note so that I could actually see the background picture I had chosen for my laptop.

This meant making decisions on the spot. Is this really the type of freelance work I would be interested in? If not, the note was deleted. If it was something I wanted to keep, that information was transferred into a running list on a Word document.

Some of the websites I looked at provided valuable information that I could use later on, such as the article I found on formatting a manuscript for Kindle/Nook. Those were immediately printed.

Another area that I went through was the websites I had bookmarked. Most of them got deleted because they really didn’t have any value, but those that had some worth were included in my list.

I also had a variety of notes in “Evernote.” You might have handwritten notes, information in your smartphone or another electronic device. The idea is to pull from all of these different places so you can get that junk drawer in your mind organized.

In the end, my Word document had a list broken down into the following categories:

EBook Information
Submissions
Freelance Work
Writing Helps

I saved the document on my computer but I also printed it off and placed it into a page protector. It was then filed in my “Writing Projects” binder.

The reason for doing this is so I can open up my binder and the first thing I see is that list of information and where to find it. Already the junk drawer in my mind began to make more sense. I knew things would be easier to locate.

Beyond that, my binder is also filled with some of the articles that I printed off. I made sure to organize those into categories as well.

So this was the start of my cleansing. And to be honest, it was the easiest part. Next week I will share the time-consuming task of going through all of the writing projects I had actually started.

Let me know if you decide to start cleansing the junk drawer of your mind and what you discover along the way.

© 2012, Stephanie Romero

The Junk Drawer of the Mind

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In my quest to get my writing life organized, I tackled a pretty big project this week. Taking advantage of the fact I was off work all week, I settled down one morning to start what I am now calling a cleansing.

One of the setbacks that many writers experience is a junk drawer in the mind…ideas and concepts of things you have started to write, want to write, think you might write and so on. Before you know it there is an assortment of half-written manuscripts, notes, ideas jotted down and websites bookmarked.

Here is how I feel when I open a literal junk drawer in my home…overwhelmed. And it’s really frustrating when I can’t find what I’m looking for. But then once-in-a-while I will discover an item I had forgotten all about and know I could use.

Although most of my unwritten work didn’t have a whole lot in the way of quantity, there was one project I had forgotten about. It consisted of 20,913 words. That’s a lot of words to write and do nothing with!

I will admit. I definitely felt overwhelmed as I started this project. But the work was worth it in the end. So as we prepare to launch into yet another New Year, it only makes sense that we start it off right…with a cleansing.

Unlike every other year where this is the time I focus on goals, I am totally skipping this. I’m not ready to set goals because I have a cleansing to get through.

I invite you on this journey. If you are a writer with a junk drawer in your mind, are you willing to forego the setting of goals and participate in a cleansing?

Even if you don’t have a junk drawer or you are one of those types of people that has it all organized, I hope you will still join us. In fact, you might offer some suggestions and advice along the way.

This isn’t a one man show. My entire reason for creating this blog in the first place wasn’t just to encourage and inspire other writers, but to dialogue.

Next week I will share how I began the process of my cleansing. Until then, Happy New Year!

© 2012, Stephanie Romero

Picking at the Scab

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Would you be surprised to learn that some writers are fearful of receiving attention? Oftentimes this stems from a need to release the words, yet with uncertainty about sharing the experience with others.

This might sound gross but this is how I picture it. It’s like this big ugly scab on your body. It’s hard and crusty.

You are tired of looking at it. So you pick and pick until parts start to come away.

Eventually you reach a point in which there is this release of puss. It oozes out; like the words that ooze out from the depths of our soul when we write.

It’s not a pretty sight to behold, if you have ever actually witnessed someone picking at a scab. So you tend to not do it in front of others. You need the release but you don’t want attention.

I will admit that I sometimes struggle with this. I write with the hope that others will benefit from it. Yet at the same time, I struggle with the attention.

It’s like wanting the release, wanting to pick off that ugly scab. But there is also a hesitation about others seeing it.

Can anyone else relate?

© 2012, Stephanie Romero

Let Silence Have Its Place

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My heart is heavy over the senseless tragedy of what took place in Connecticut yesterday. Words can’t adequately describe the agony of the families who have lost someone they love.

As much as I love words—as much as I enjoy finding ways to string them together, to make them flow—sometimes they really aren’t enough. In moments like this, I think as writers we need to recognize the importance of silence…of saying nothing.

I can be very wordy. I can take longer than necessary to explain something. I sometimes believe that my words can alleviate pain and hurt. Yet the reality is that they can’t. Not always.

So I won’t try to put into words the whys or how’s of these tragic circumstances. I will let it be and allow silence to have its rightful place.

© 2012, Stephanie Romero

Facing the Challenges

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What are the challenges you face as a writer? For some it is a lack of time.

You might be working full-time at a job you hate, coming home to take care of your family and attempting to squeeze in some writing time whenever you can. In other words, you barely make a dent.

For others the challenge is a messy life. Everything is out of order, you can never find anything you need, you forget appointments and you don’t know which end is up. Who can function in chaos?

Maybe the challenge is a lack of confidence. You write and then pick it apart, mumbling to yourself, “This is stupid.” The delete and backspace button is used so much on your computer, it is starting to wear away.

It could be that your challenge is thinking too highly of yourself. There are some writers who won’t join or can’t stay in a critique group because well…they don’t want to be critiqued. What they wrote is just fine and you aren’t changing a thing. And who does that editor think he is, anyway?

Another challenge could be that you are stuck in a rut. You are cranking out the same stuff day after day. Maybe you even have a job in writing but it’s not the stuff you are passionate about.

With the end of December looming, it’s time to start thinking about the challenges you have faced this past year. Perhaps they are the same ones you deal with every single year. Are you ready for a change?

These are the issues I really want to tackle as we venture into 2013. It’s time to address those challenges head-on. I’m ready…what about you?

© 2012, Stephanie Romero