 | 7 Oct 09 |
I’ve heard that the condition of a writer’s work space can regulate the level of his or her productivity. Messy space, sporadic productivity. Organized space, heightened productivity. And, according to popular rumor, if properly Feng Shui-ed, that work space can even enhance one’s creativity. Well, if all that’s true—I’m screwed.
I have two work spaces, one just as cluttered as the other. My favorite is the office in my apartment. It’s an ‘enter at your own risk’ space that I treasure. My desk is L shaped, with a printer, scanner, in-basket, bucket of Dum-Dum suckers, and computer tower sitting on the short section of the L. The longer section holds the computer monitor, keyboard, and stacks of paperwork sorted into piles. There’s my ‘working on now’ pile, ‘this looks interesting’ pile, and ‘get to it later’ pile. A small filing cabinet sits beneath the desk. It’s chocked full of research papers, pens, wayward paperclips, and blank discs. They’re supposed to be blank anyway.
Along one wall is a bookshelf, overflowing with books. You can tell I had every intention of doing things rights when I started loading up the shelves because a few books are actually in alphabetical order by author. That didn’t last long, however. My book collection is too big and unruly. The more it grows the more disorderly it becomes—and remains. The shelves won’t hold any more, so stacks of books now cover some of the floor.
On the wall to my right are some of my favorite pictures, actors, actresses, and authors I’ve been fortunate enough to meet over the years. Sandra Brown, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Elizabeth George, James Patterson, James Lee Burke, Mary Higgins Clark, Alice Cooper, D.L. Menard, Linda Blair (Exorcist), Doug Bradley (Pinhead from Hellraisers), and Dee Wallace (E.T. phone home!). Beneath those pictures is a short credenza crammed with more paperwork, pictures of my daughters, a full size replica of Chucky, the Bride of Chucky, a smaller version of Leatherface (Texas-Chainsaw Massacre), a three-foot tall Frankenstein, and wolf statues in just about every pose.
Near the door is a Gazelle, which I use when I’m stumped on a scene, so it sort of fills two roles—exercise machine and think-tank. Without it, my butt would probably be the size of Nebraska.
My other work space is much more boring. It’s my office, at the office. No Chucky dolls in this room, just mounds of paperwork, filing cabinets, a conference table with four chairs, and a large mahogany desk. The desk is really too big. It was a gift from a business associate, and all it’s really good for is collecting more paperwork. The only space I really need to work is one wide enough to hold a keyboard…like now. Every other inch of this monstrosity just holds more friggin’ paper, files, pens, empty coffee cups, half empty bottles of Dasani, a bag of sugar-free Life Saver Sorbets, two bottles of vitamins that have been sitting here for two years and that I forget to take, and a bag of carrots, which I brought to work with me today.
Like I said, both spaces are cluttered, but it’s organized clutter, which works fine for me when it comes to productivity. I don’t think my creativity suffers because of it. Hell, if I had to worry about keeping my work area neat all the time, I’d never get any writing done. Piles and clutter are my way, and in them I can find just about anything I’m looking for without a problem. . . . well, except for my damn car keys.
What about you—neat or cluttered?
© 2009, Deborah LeBlanc. All rights reserved.
Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author and business owner from Lafayette, Louisiana. She's also a licensed death scene investigator and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams.
She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers' Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc, and International Thriller Writers Inc. In 2004, she created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and founded Literacy Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America’s teens. She also takes her passion for literacy and a powerful ability to motivate to high schools around the country.
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I need the organized chaos. We put our house on the market, and having to keep everything neat and tidy is killing me. An empty desktop just doesn’t inspire me. I’ve compromised with a hideaway folder where I can cram everything if someone actually wants to look at the house.
My frustration is that I can have something on my desk but when I need it, it disappears. It’s been there, right in front of me for days (weeks?) but when I want it, it’s somewhere else.
by Terry Odell October 7th, 2009 at 5:03 amDitto, ditto, ditto, Terry! And I usually find that missing thing–that was there only yesterday!–two days AFTER I need it…argg!
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:04 pmYour desk/office sounds like mine. I just keep telling myself an empty desk is the sign of an empty mind. If I repeat it often enough it, I can almost make myself believe it.
by Leah Braemel October 7th, 2009 at 6:14 amAh, Leah, it’s soooo nice to know I’m not alone!
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:05 pmUh-oh I guess I need to get cleaning to up my productivity. It’s a little (lot) low and the mess it high. Thanks for this post.
by Kwana October 7th, 2009 at 6:25 amKwana, I say we issue a national mandate that all current messes shall remain in mess state. lol
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:06 pmDon’t touch my piles! I know EXACTLY where everything is located in/over/under those piles. Every time I clean or get organized, I’m lost for a month trying to find stuff I need. (Which is about how long it takes for the piles to form again.)
No. I’m not a horder. Once I no longer need something, it’s tossed or filed away. Until then, though, it’s in a pile somewhere on my desk, printer, file cabinet or work table. My brain (and imagination) looks like my office. Somehow it all works for me.
by Silver James October 7th, 2009 at 8:10 amI hear ya, SJ. Every once in a while I’ll get a wild hair to clear away the piles. Once I do, I’m lost, as is most of what I need, until the piles start piling up again.
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:08 pmI go through spells where my desk is completely clean and then things slowly accumulate, usually as I’m working on a book. Then I’ll get to the end of the book, finally start seeing the disaster that is my office and have to completely clean it before I can begin a new project.
I actually moved out of one room which has a lot of books and display room because it was too easy to fill it with junk, and I focus much better in this smaller room I’ve set my office in now. I’ve got it relatively sparsely furnished, and I’m in the process of cleaning out that front space and remodeling/redecorating it, and some of this stuff will be migrating up to that room, making this one even cleaner.
I used to be a packrat or lazy about throwing things away. Then I have seen my mom over the last year have to deal with the astonishing clutter that my grandmother had accumulated (she died this summer), and I swore I was not going to do that to my kids. It was astonishing, the stuff she’d hoarded.
But I have to admit that while I’m working? Don’t touch my junk. I know where it is and I may need it and I will move it or throw it away when I’m done.
by toni mcgee causey October 7th, 2009 at 10:39 amI’m the same way, Toni…don’t touch my junk! Isn’t it funny, though, that the things we keep because we believe we’ll need them one day, we never seem to need…until we throw them away.
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:09 pmI rotate between clean and cluttered. I don’t mind the clutter but every once in a while I have to straighten up to find things.
by Jill James October 7th, 2009 at 10:51 amI’m always impressed with clean and clear, Jill. The problem is it usually involves someone else’s workspace.
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pmI don’t like clutter–my main problem is that I’m a very visual organizer–if I can’t see it, I can’t find it. So things tend to end up in piles until I can’t stand it any more and then I go through and find everything I’m not working on TODAY and put it in a file. And almost invariably end up doing double research because then I can’t find the file….(sigh). But I don’t have enough space to be effectively organized AND have it visible, so I deal….
I do have a bad habit of putting books back on the shelf wherever it’s handy, though, so once a month or so I have to reorganize the bookshelves. I don’t care so much about alphabetical, but I try to keep the topics together!
by Lorena October 7th, 2009 at 11:19 amI’m impressed, Lorena. Just putting the books back on the shelves, and by topic nonetheless, deserves kudos.
by Deborah LeBlanc October 7th, 2009 at 12:12 pmNo matter how hard I try, I can’t keep my space uncluttered. I cleared my desk off three days ago, only to come to work to find it completely covered once more in paperwork. You’d think in Iraq, I would be more organized with less ‘stuff’ around. Not in this lifetime. If anything, being in Iraq has made me realize how much ‘stuff’ I really have lying around but also just how damn hard it is for me to stay organized.
by Jessica Scott October 7th, 2009 at 12:18 pmThe only way my husband and I have managed not to fight over the desk in the study is for me to move out. My soldier gene is just fine: my martha stewart gene is beyond defunct and I’m afraid when I get home and I’m going a hundred miles an hour to make it to work on time while getting two kids off to school that I’m going to be even worse.
At least my muse isn’t picky about where we write.
I like my piles. My notebooks that no one understands but me!
by Debra webb October 8th, 2009 at 6:24 am