Shop Talk With Christina A.--Organization

By: Christina Adams

There are as many different types of writers as there are personalities. I am an organizer. I love organizing. I love lists. I love goals. And I love organizing my lists of goals. I have boxes, binders or folders for every scrap of paper I have written on and I have a whole shelf devoted to storing the binders and folders.

I enjoy organizing all my stories and ideas. There is a binder for finished stories I now think are silly or unpublishable, a binder for unfinished stories I don't intend to continue and a folder for every short story I have written. I also keep a binder devoted solely to my early stage ideas. When one of these ideas develop enough into a full fledged book idea I move it into a binder of its own, if an idea turns into a short story I move it into a folder. Or after staring at it for years without wanting to work on it, I move it to my unfinished story binder. There is a place for every stage of writing. This is my system, and it works well for me.

Now before you think my writing space is sparkling and sterile, you should know I have a habit of tossing all current papers into piles until a time--often once every six month or so period--where I can't take it anymore and purge my area of anything not bound or filed. After hearing about my binder obsession I am sure piles of loose, unconnected papers may be hard to imagine, but I like to think of it as my creative side expressing itself. Even if my piles are more organized than I would like to admit....

Every writer has their own method. Are you messy? Are you neat? What works best for you? I'd love to hear about it. Let's talk shop!