Well, fortunately, no computer also means no internet-based distractions (Read: Facebook) so I am offline and wandering.
You know the writer’s projects you put off for a rainy day? Well, it was one such rainy (stormy and powerless) day. And so today is the day I finally organized my writer’s notebooks.
In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of keeping a writer’s notebook at all. I’ll call that a success: I’ve kept a faithful writer’s notebook for months. The problem is– I’ve now filled stacks of them. I jot down ideas for future projects, notes on writing, thoughts on books I’ve read and chapter outlines for any one of the three novels living in my head at any given time, in no particular order.
It’s a mess, and it was time to clean my room!
After all, (at least for me) disjointed pages lead to disjointed thought!)
Today I ripped pages out of a half dozen notebooks and sorted them by category. To organize them all, I’d recently purchased a Mead product that’s a hybrid three-ring binder/subject notebook. It’s portable, soft-covered and perfect for my purposes.
(And, no, I’m not sponsored by Mead. I just like a product that meets consumer need, and this one sure does!)
As of today I have all of my pages sorted by project and category for easy reference and use. When I get a 2 AM idea and jot it on my bedside notebook, I can file it away safely in the morning with no fears of losing it. (Or at least that’s the new goal anyway. Did you see my post about the random papers I jot down my ideas on? I bet I am not the only one…)
Modern technology is helpful, and I know it works for some as a means of organizing thought, but I’m an old school paper-and-pencil kind of gal. Besides, I get too distracted by the mere temptation of facebook.
I’m grateful for today’s forced hiatus for helping me to get my writing organized. But I’m curious: how do you organize your writing life?