Organization (or lack thereof)

I apologize for not posting for the past few weeks, but between drama, injuries, and lack of time, I haven't really had time to write. But I'm back and you can all rest assured that I am not in a mental institution somewhere, driven mad from trying to write.

But this huge gap between articles gave me a very good segway into this article's topic... Organization. I italicized it, underlined it, and put it in bold because it is ON.

Obviously, I don't have it. Or do I?

See, when I say the word 'organization', I don't necessarily mean neat, clean, alphabetical, or whatever. I mean that you have a system that you use to keep YOURSELF organized. It could be in binders in a drawer by your desk, or it could be in notebooks spread out across the room, or it could even be a lot of post it notes covering a lot of wall in that office which, let's face it, definitely DOES NOT go with the rest of the decor anyways.

Point is, we all have a system we feel comfortable using. But that doesn't mean it's the best system to use. I'm the perfect example of it. My organization extends to numerous notebooks that are scattered in and around my desk (which I rarely sit at) or across the room by my bed. I ALWAYS forget which notebook I recently wrote in with my story ideas or mental notes and it's becoming a problem.

Looks like I need an..... (pause for dramatic effect) ORGANIZATION MAKEOVER! Of course, I can't be the only one out in this great big world of ours looking for a better way to keep track of all the insane ideas and stories we put down. So here are a few:

1) Notecards: May seem kinda strange when I just told you everything in my room is scattered and notecards will, more than likely, find a way to play hide-n-seek, but there's a way to organize that as well. I'm not sure of the proper name because I haven't used one in quite a while but I'll call them "Notecard Boxes" and the general purpose of these boxes is to hold all your notecards. These can be found on the same aisle, probably, as the notecards.

I, sometimes, like to get color coded notecards to go a little deeper into how efficient I work. I'd use green as a poem ideal or, if it's a story, the plot. Red as characters. Purple as setting.And so on. May seem like a lot of work keeping track of all these colors but I keep them all together when I have them all filled out.

2) Binders. They're a great way to hold all the stories or poems you've written over the years and allow you to go back and take a look at where you've been and how far you've come. I use them. The only problem is that I use too many! I have multiple binders! So to help MYSELF organize, I'll try to use just two. One for holding my stories. One for holding my poems. And maybe a third to use for working on stories or poems in the making.

3) Simple is better. I got this after I realized that I consider using 3 binders to be "organized". Simple can be any number of things. What do you need to cut down on? The amount of 'organizers' you use? Whatever it is that you think you have too much of, work on it. If there isn't a way to make it simple, try to make it more efficient for you.

4) Back up your back ups. Nothing says unorganized like a caffeine induced writing frenzie ONLY to have your only copy get lost, or accidentally deleted because your computer decided it would be a GREAT time to restart itself (I swear, computers plan these things on purpose). But outsmart those machines by saving it constantly and onto something like an external hard drive or USB drive, along with on your computer. Now you have two copies. Now god forbid you lose your USB drive on the same day your computer restarted itself, then you might just have bad luck. I, personally, use a USB drive and I've set up folders on that drive so that when I save what I'm working on, I know right where to go. One folder is titled 'Poems'. The other 'Novels' and it has its own sub-folders of plot, story, character, and so on. I would do the same on my computer but I think my computer has joined a Computer Activist group and refuses to let me be the Administrative User.

5) Do what works for you. They say it takes 5 weeks to learn a new habit, so in that time it takes some forcing and constantly forgetting to do something that will help you. But it gets easier. Hopefully. I'm still in that '5 week learning' stage and I have to say, I've screwed it up multiple times. But I remember and go back and try again. That's the point. But don't do something that destroys your entire system. You're simply adding or improving a part of your system, not blowing it up with dynamite and putting a nice little apartment complex on it.

If you thought this was unhelpful, just remember that there will be more articles with actual "helpful" information on it in the future.

Title To Be Determined (Procrastination)

pro·cras·ti·na·tion [proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuhn, pruh‐]

noun

the act or habit of procrastinating,or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention: She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment. (Dictionary.com)

My History teacher always use to say “Procrastination is the Assassination of the Proclamation of Motivation.” In his defense, we were also talking about Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the time he said it so his confusion is understandable. But the point is he was right... maybe. Procrastination is such as pain in the ass but it's the kind we can't get enough of. Don't deny it. Right now, you're reading a blog about procrastination because you're procrastinating on that thing you need to do.

So why are you procrastinating? Don't know how to start your piece of writing? Is it your project so big that you have no idea where to start so you decide a nap or reading an amateur’s blog would be easier? Or is it simply because you have no desire whatsoever to do the thing that needs to be done? Well let me tell you something, good sir/madam: Stop it! Ok, think about stopping it. Actually, don't stop at all. Just keep procrastinating.

This may sound very insane, but stay with me, some of us are actually very good at the whole “last minute, time crunching, night before its due, caffeine rampage” thing. We do our best work when we have a deadline and that deadline is up in an hour or so. You need to reach your 10,000 word mark by tomorrow to get it into a contest for publication? Pff, no problem. There are levels of procrastination that you should be aware of. Know where you are and embrace it. And if you're a super slacker, I applaud your bravery to dive into all your assignments the night before it's due. ROCK ON SUPER SLACKER and shame on your master procrastinator! I, too, have been guilty of smooth talking into an extension for many assignments in High School, only to procrastinate on it.

However, some of us can't deal with doing all that so last minute but we don't feel like doing it anyways. It's either too big of a project, too long term to the point where you you don't see the need to, or you just don't have the motivation. So here are 2, I repeat TWO, Faraway Tips that are fairly easy to understand:

1. Do it. I HATE doing homework, or starting a new story that I have no idea how I'm going to write, waking up, showering, socializing, and so on. But I do it. Why? I think about how it's similar to me and working out. I don't want to run 5 miles or do those insane amounts of bicep curls or pull ups, but after I force myself to do it, I think about how great it feels to accomplish it. So even though I have no desire to do absolutely anything, I do it and as soon as I do, it's easy to find a rhythm and keep to it so I can get everything done. So if you don't feel like doing whatever it is that needs to get done, force yourself to. Once you start, it's not that bad.

2. Schedule it. If it's one of those long term projects where you want to do, say, 10000 words before a certain date, make sure to stretch out over time. For example, if you need to do that many words over the course of a month, aim for a certain amount of words each week. So each week, write 2500 words. Then break it down from there. How are you going to do that 2500 words in the week? Are you going to do it over the weekend? Or do a few words every other day? Then when you schedule when you'll do what, resort back to the 1^st tip; DO IT! This kind of thing doesn't just apply to writing. Obviously it goes for homework, projects, essays, business stuff where business needs to get done.

I know you're probably thinking to yourself, “Ian! Surely there's more to it than that!” No. That's cutting past all the bull crap and getting right down to the point. I could probably come up with 5 or 10 reasons but it'll all come down to the two points I mentioned above. Besides, I don't really feel like coming up with more reasons than that!  

WRITE ON!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!

Oh God, Did I really write that?!

We've all been there. We have the best idea for a story ever and we write it. Then it's the bets thing we've written so far. Unfortunately, a year or so later we go back to read it and just think, "Oh God, why?" I just had that moment tonight while I was reading a fantasy story with Princesses, Castles, Magic, and a secret civil war, a young hero forced to rise to the occasion, and the "impossible romance".

Don't get me wrong, I like the premise still but reading HOW I wrote it just made me want to burn the papers and hide away in my closet until the world has forgotten about its existence, the world meaning me. But there is an upside to this tragic moment in our writing lives. Want to know what it is? You do? Seems weird you'd trust a young, inexperienced writer like myself but OK!It shows us how far we've come as writers. I often question if my poems or short stories are becoming better. I don't see the difference right off the bat.

The story, almost literally, has to collect dust and be forgotten for a while. So you go on with your life making more stories and whatnot then one day, while you're cleaning your room or office or where ever, you come across a dusty little story that you barely remember writing. Then you read it and your memory starts coming back of this ingenious story... wait... did you really write that? Yes, that right there? Was it really necessary? Did you really just spend the last 3 pages explaining things you barely understand before moving on with what was supposed to be going on? Seriously? You misspelled the word 'Princess' and used the wrong 'there'.

Maybe it's just me whose clumsy enough to make every writing mistake in the book with such an incredible story idea, but I'm sure we've all looked at our own writing (at some point in time) with fresh eyes and realized what could be better and what could be taken out then put back in. So go ahead and write that incredibly legendary novel or short story, my fellow writer. Forget about what grammar is. English is complicated anyways. Besides, it's the first draft of a story you probably won't see again until next year when you're wiser, smarter, and more experienced. So their!

I gave you an idea of how to fight off those mixed feelings toward your writing, but just in case you think you don't have enough ammunition, here's another few tips you can do to confront and combat it:

1) Look at it in the eyes of the reader. What things take away from the flow of the story? Do you spend too much time describing what's going on or describing why something is the way it is? The blockage could be coming from how you worded everything else!

2) Again - leave your story on the shelf for a few days. I left mine on the shelf for 4 years (mostly because I have terrible memory and it served as a great paper weight) and upon reviewing it, I realized how I wanted it to be. Of course, it was in a completely different direction, story-line wise, but the characters and some of the events in the story would still be there. The difference would be that I left room for me to continue through the story.

3) If it's character development, then write a completely different short story where your character is younger and the story is something that happened that helped make them who they are in your main story! That way, you'll get an idea into your character and you'll be able to understand the types of decisions your character will make in different situations. Otherwise, it might throw off the reader and make your story confusing.

4) Finally, experiment. Blockage comes in a lot of shapes and forms that I could not possible begin to understand nor explain (though I will try in future Hubs) but sometimes it can be broken by simply experimenting different types of outcomes (outcomes being what comes next). If you don't know what comes next in your story, then experiment with different types of ways to continue the story, maybe you'll find the way out or it'll give you an idea for what to do next.

-------------------------------------------------------

CHECK BACK EVERY TUESDAY FIR A NEW BLOG ON WRITING!!! I swear it'll be better next time, I promise!  ;)