51. Organization and other rambles

Friday, May 27, 2005

My day began later than normal because as soon as my dad came home from work, we decided to go out shopping. I needed to pick up something from the stationery store, and he needed to do some grocery shopping. Came home, and then I played model for my brother so I can get some new photos of me taken. I had been looking for a picture of myself to post in my sidebar, and all my most recent pictures are at least three to four years old. Once that was done, I finally came online. Instead of my day beginning at 1pm as usual, it started at 4pm, so I feel a bit behind schedule today.

Last night. I ventured over to the Evolution chat room, and I sat in there while I worked on some things. I didn't get much forward progress on Lonely Street, but I did work on it some. However, I did get some editing done on the two flash shorts that I'm sending out in a few days. Caught a couple of typos I had missed before in the first one I wrote, and cut down on some wordiness on the second one. I actually am quite happy at the how the first one turned out. To me it read well, and I'm hoping it reads the same to the contest judges. The second I think needs some more work, so I plan to let it set for a few days and then take a look at it Sundayish.

Last night while in the chat I took a good look at my work area, and I asked myself how I got any real work done? My desk is usually a mess. I ended up taking about half an hour just to clean it up, dust, reorganize and straighten things up. It looks tidier, and I put things I know I would need in places I could easily grab them. Reorganizing my desk then led my mind down to organization when it comes to my writing. I am one of the fly by the seat of my pants kind of writers. I don't plan much, plot much, do charts for the characters, etc. I started to wonder to myself if I did some of those things I don't really do, if I would be more productive when it comes to my writing. On a good day, I can probably crank out 1,000 words in any given WIP. This varies depending on what I'm working. If I'm working on a flash or short story, sometimes I can get the whole thing done in one setting, sometimes two. Depends. On a longer work though, 1,000 is good. However, sometimes I don't get that far. Take last night for example, I got about two hundred words done on Lonely Street, which is my gay romance WIP. It was good 200 words, but I wish I had done more. I did work on the two flash shorts though, so I think it balanced itself out.

I did find a pack of index cards and an old index card holder when I was cleaning my desk, and I think I'm going to start using those to help me organize a bit. Maybe use them to write down scene ideas, plot bunnies that bounce into my head at any given time. Maybe a little more organization would help me get things in order and be more productive when it comes to my writing. What works for you? Are you another pantser like me? Does organization help you? What types of organization methods work best for you?

In other news, just heard back about a short that I submitted to Clean Sheets, and it was rejected. Sent it in about a week ago, so at least the R was swift so I can try elsewhere. I just need to see where else it might fit. Right now though I'm off to bake some cookies.