At last week’s book signing at the Dog Earred Pages, I met a woman who wrote a book on organizing. “Ah, so you wrote a horror novel,” I quipped.

She kindly laughed and replied that, “some people seem to think so.”

Aside from being under the influence of cold medecine, I’m not sure why I said what I did. I’m am an organized person, most of the time. My work space and lab bench are neat and clean. My files and folders clearly labeled, filed and sorted. I know where everything is.

The same is mostly true of my home. Okay, it’s somewhat dusty but things are where I want them. But then again I have three children and a husband who rearrange things and rarely put things back. So some latitude must be given.

However, I’m not as organized in my writing as I’d like. I’m getting better, I’m just not there. My system is this, I buy notebooks/composition notebooks at the beginning of the year when all those back to school sales are on. I use one for my books, I cut out pictures, make notes, jot down ideas etc.

But they are by no means organized. I have ideas for stories in pages of characters for one WIP, random notes from shows I’ve watched on other pages and lecture and world building notes on yet more pages. Before you condemn me, please know this is a big step up from note cards and sticky notes. I’m still finding those from books I wrote 13 years ago.

Part of me resists the urge to get better organized. Writing is a creative outlet and organizing might make it a bit too much like work. Still, I might need to tweak my style just a bit. Hey, why not, my writing style has evolved–my tracking should too. But so as not to shock my system too much, I’ll keep it simple. I will have one for story ideas only. Another book will be for lecture notes, and randam research facts. Since I write in series, I’ll have one book per series with no other doodles inside. And I’ll add tabs to the notebooks so I’ll have sections devoted to characters, locations, food, etc.

I think I can handle that.