How to Stay in the Room (Part 1)

"The key to success is staying organized."

It’s common knowledge among writers that the key to success is to just “stay in the room.” It certainly says something about the nature of this art when so many writers reluctantly drag themselves to their work. We resign ourselves to the commitment of writing like it’s a diet or a 12-step program.

But what happens after you make that commitment? You are seated in a solitary carrel at the library, or you’ve just returned home with your favorite caffeinated concoction. The cursor keeps blinking, but you have no tolerance for excuses and will not leave the room. Now what do you do?

Eleven months ago, I made the crazy or genius decision to quit my day job to pursue my career as a writer. After almost a year of drafting, re-writing, revising, plotting, outlining, reading my work, starting a writing group, scrutinizing the language in everything I read from my favorite fiction to the descriptions of dinner meals on restaurant menus, attending conferences and workshops and lectures and readings and tearfully thanking my family every day for their unwavering support, I have come to the conclusion that, after “staying in the room,” the key to success is staying organized.

Organization (or the lack thereof) means something different for each person, and of course individual writers have their own needs. I have found that, though I exist on a baseline of “organized clutter,” each of my projects demands different methods of organization. While short stories can happily co-exist in their own pocket folders, my blog posts are kept online in various states of completion. Longer projects, such as novels and collections, require file folders with tabbed dividers for each draft.

Though new technology boasts “an app for everything,” many writers are still unaware of computer programs designed to help them stay organized. Software like StoryMill, Scrivener, and yWriter can keep your desktop–both on the computer and your home furnishings–clutter free by streamlining all of your notes, drafts, character sketches, and bits of dialogue into a single program window. Many of these applications also boast tools like name generators and cliché meters, as well as progress reports to help you maintain your goals.

Screenshot of StoryMill writing software

Whether you are a writer of prose poems or radio drama, finding a way to get organized so you know the current status of your work—which story is plotted but still needs to be drafted, which chapter is polished but awaiting feedback from your trusted readers—is beyond beneficial. Maybe you require an ongoing to-do list, or use colored-coded post-its on your kitchen window. Maybe you develop a spreadsheet to help you track the scenes in your memoir that still need to be reworked. As your work advances from “in-process” to “ready for publication,” effective organization guides you through the multi-tasking required to submit and self-promote while also pursuing your next project.

Personally, I prefer to maintain ongoing “To-Write” and “To-Read” lists in the back of the journal I carry everywhere. Every month I set goals for my “Major Projects,” “Submissions,” “Business,” “Events,” and “Reading.” I try to attend at least one writing event, read two books, and update my blog twice a month while also working on longer projects and ensuring that I constantly have short pieces in an editor’s inbox for consideration. To make these goals more manageable, I select no more than five tasks for each week.

Whatever method you choose, organization will help you determine your next step and set reasonable goals which will make staying in the room a little less scary. And never forget to back up.

Art by Philip Bitnar.