Organization: Gotta Love It.
Kim Watters here. After almost 19 years in the same house, I finally made the decision to move. Not an easy feat, but a necessary one. The house just wasn’t working out for our needs anymore. Do you have any idea how much stuff one can accumulate over that time period? Throw in a couple of kids and you’re looking at a mountain of stuff and a garage barely big enough to contain box after box of belongings I couldn’t part with; like the first had print my oldest child made in art when he was three, or my second child’s snippet of hair from her first haircut at a year old. And what do I do with all the old paperwork, royalty statements, contracts and such? Or the old costume jewelry I inherited from my grandmother? And-gasp-my book collection?So many belongings, so little time to sort, and box, and label for storage. Because if I’m ever to find anything before I have a chance to unpack once I move into our newer, bigger home, I have to know where it is. You never know when you’ll have to glance through an old contract, or need to find a certain research book. I’ll be able to find it at moment’s notice and save time if I’m organized, right?
So how can you incorporate organizational skills into writing? Easily. Keep detailed spreadsheets for each manuscript. I do one for each character complete with a photograph of what they look like. One is for the all the character names, no matter how brief they appear, and how they relate to our main characters. I also keep track of local businesses and who owns them as they appear in the story and I keep a time line and an outline for each chapter along with page numbers and chapter lengths.
My newest release, Home Sweet Home, deals with renovating an old Victorian house, so I kept a chart on each room in the house and the progress of the renovations as they occurred. So each time I needed to refer back to something, it was easier to page through spreadsheets than the actual manuscript. I also created an ancestry line for my heroine to keep track of marriage, birth and death dates, which coincided with the building of the original house.
Since time is a premium for me, having everything I needed at my fingertips made me more productive with the minutes I had to write. I work full-time, have two elementary school kids and managed to write Home Sweet Home in under three months. Call me anal, but it works for me. It might just work for you, too.
Labels: Kim Watters, Love Inspired Romance, moving, Organization, Slice of Life
12 Comments:
At May 26, 2011 6:09 AM,
Ausjenny said…
I lived in the last house for 36 years add to that a mother brought up in the depression who saved everything like the plastic bags things like coconut is packed in. I found so many bags of bags, when I thought I had them all I found heeps more in the shed. When one big bag would be fulled instead of throwing some out she would put the bag in the cupboard, when that was full she put then in her wardrobe, when that was full other places. So I understand packing and moving. Its amazing how much you do accumulate.
At May 26, 2011 10:25 AM,
Maryrose said…
Very cool! andantespirit08@gmail.com
At May 26, 2011 10:27 AM,
Valri said…
My parents still live in the house that I grew up in so I'm always telling them to go threw their stuff so I don't have to "someday"! My husband and I have moved 5 times in our marriage so we have pretty much gotten our "stuff" down to just what we want! It's a good feeling. My in-laws lived through the depression and they have TONS of stuff - we can't even visit them really because there really isn't a place to sit at their house! I love to be organized - Hooray for you!
At May 26, 2011 11:06 AM,
Charity said…
I have to say, organization is something I think many author's have down:) If only I did as well.
esterried[at]yahoo[dot]com
At May 26, 2011 11:46 AM,
Kim Watters said…
Hi Everyone. Thanks for stopping by. I'm on limited e-mail access so bare with me.
Jenny, I feel your pain.
Maryrose-:)
Valri My parents are collectors too. My sister and fight over who's going to have to go through their stuff at the end!
Charity-good luck. Once you start, it's easy to continue. It's the getting started....
At May 26, 2011 12:34 PM,
Alexis said…
Ugh I need to work on my organizational skills, and this post just reminds me of that! LOL
Alexis R.
alexisbroberson@yahoo.com
At May 26, 2011 6:57 PM,
Kim Watters said…
Glad to help Alexis. :)
At May 27, 2011 3:45 PM,
Jackie S. said…
Great post, Kim! Good luck on your move, which I am sure will be smooth cause you are so organized!
Would love to read your book.
jackie.smith[at]dishmail[dot]net
At May 28, 2011 9:51 AM,
Kim Watters said…
Thanks Jackie. :) I am looking for volunteers to move some boxes. Wanna help?
At June 1, 2011 4:17 PM,
Judy B said…
I'm an organized person but my husband is not!! He is a pack rat and throws nothing away!! It is hard to organize when he isn't willing to part with anything and I mean anything!! :)
judyjohn2004[at]yahoo[dot]com
At June 1, 2011 6:30 PM,
Kim Watters said…
Judy, I feel your pain. Thanks for stopping by.
At June 18, 2011 6:06 PM,
Lady DragonKeeper said…
I'm not a writer, but it's neat to see how different authors work ... I think all the details and research they put in "behind the scenes" really add to the finished product. =)
jafuchi7[at]hawaii[dot]edu
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