The Junk Drawer of the Mind

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker in Flickr

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

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