Paper Should Not Be Work

I promised I would share a trick I learned about how to stay on top of paperwork.  I only recently learned about this, but I was so impressed by the way it was explained that I had to try it out for myself.  And you know what?  It works.  I am not always so lucky.

Here's how it goes: first, make a file for whatever you are doing. No, not a whole filing cabinet full of folders. Just one simple folder for, say, your blog. In that folder, you will put anything relating to your blog, but it doesn't stop there. Let's say you post one comment per week and while you are thinking about what you want to post next, you have several thoughts on the subject. There's a way to stay on top of that, but it will come in a future post.

Okay, so your file is simply labeled Blog. Now, lets suppose your blog is about writing. So far, you have posted an average of once a week on your blog, for an average of four times per month for three years. Cool.

If you had made paper copies of each of your posts, you would now have a file full of papers containing copies of all of your posts.  That's awesome. Would you be able to go to your file and pull out a post that you wanted to refer back to? Possibly. But what happens if you are still posting on your blog fifteen years from now? Would you still be able to access the paper you want without spending a lot of time, shuffling?  Maybe not.

Here's what I've found helps: inside the hanging file marked Blog, slip another, smaller file marked 2006. In that file, place the copies of all of your posts from 2006.

Did you have several topics you discussed on your blog? Okay. Then all you have to do is put still another file in the hanging file and mark this new file Writing, if that is something you have posted about several times and if you plan to write more about it. Make copies of those posts which discuss writing and put those copies into the file marked Writing. Don't worry if you have several folders within your hanging folder. There's a way to take care of that and we'll be discussing that at a later date. I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me in gaining some degree of control over my many and varied types of paperwork.

Shouting To The Masses

It has come to my attention that I have been shouting to the masses. Upon further investigation, however, I realize that the masses are a very small and loyal group who may or may not be enjoying the words I share.
As an author who continues to love writing, whether or not my words are read, I'm sure I will keep doing the writer's tap-dance, aka, pecking away at my computer keyboard. However, it does tend to make me wonder just where my words are traveling to, if no one is actually reading them.
Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage," but if that's so, am I sending my thoughts only to be scrambled with others like mine? Do my words have merit and will I ever know the joy of someone's kind gesture at a comment to one of my posts? Time can only tell.
In the meatime, I am quite thrilled that I have had the opportunity, unlike my wonderful story-teller mama, to send the birth of my creativity out into the world for viewing. What a glorious time we live in! Send the words out. Search creations that others have posted. Find new and exciting bits of trivia and news that triggers the whole thing to start again.
I am quite sure that our ancestors must be amazed at our ability to think ourselves clever. That is, if our departed ancestors have the privilege to know how much fun we have in our modern world. I'm so thankful that I live now, rather than having to struggle as so many of those who laid the groundwork for my eventual joy in life.

Scribbling In The Middle Of The Night

I've heard it said that a writer should keep a tablet nearby at all times. At night, there should be a tablet next to the bed for writing those wonderful ideas that sleep brings on. So, I very dutifully placed a pen and tablet next to my bed, then went to sleep. Probably because my subconscious mind knew the tablet was there and that same subconscious mind was in the mood for a good joke, I woke in the middle of the night with a story to write and I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. It was a great story. Naturally, the pen I was using had a built-in light so I wouldn't wake my hubby while I wrote. Then, I went back to sleep.

In the morning, when I woke, I was so excited to rework the story and send it in. Of course, I couldn't recall anything about the actual story. It had been the result of an incredible dream. I did remember that there was lots of adventure and my inner cheerleader told me that it would be a best-seller practically before it hit the shelves. I was excited to get started.

My little tablet and I skipped merrily to my office to unveil the mystery of my best-seller. I couldn't have been more excited if it had been Christmas morning and I was looking at ten thousand gifts, all with my name on them. Finally, after preparing all that was necessary, I opened the magical tablet and my jaw dropped open at the words that I saw; if they could be called words. Personally, I was only able to recognize one or two places where letters came together to create actual words. And even those were questionable.

I guess the moral of my story is that it would be wise to know what you are doing before you do it. And if you are going to write in the middle of the night, it might just be a good idea to get out of bed and go someplace where light is not a problem. Would I have produced a best-selling novel if I hadn't been writing in the dark? Well, now, that remains to be seen. Would I have been able to read what I had written? Quite possibly, yes, because my best guess tells me that I would never have attempted writing with a pen if I had gone anywhere NEAR the computer.

I've often wondered what that great story was about and pined for the ability to read it. But maybe Mother Nature has a kind streak and protected me by not letting me read the results of "Midnight Writings." Since that incident, my sleep has been continuous, when I do sleep, but I am much more aware of the words I write. I'm still working on publishing that best-seller, but at least I know when words come together as legible.