Edit, Declutter and Write! by Kelly Klepfer

Edit Your Life and Declutter Your Brain

by Kelly Klepfer

I want to downsize and move into a much tinier home. "Ok?" You might respond. "Whatever floats your boat. But the last time I looked this blog is about writing fiction."

Exactly. I'm headed there. The past couple years I've grown intrigued by the minimalism movement. Why? Because it is not about she with the fewest toys wins. It’s about curation. As a museum curates the art it contains and seeks, we have the option to choose only the best of what we want into our lives. It is like editing our lives.

An edit slices the unnecessary, the redundant, and the excess from our writing. I know this freshly firsthand because my co-authored book has been edited to death and reinvigorated by those edits. Out of the Frying Pan has been a long time coming. Michelle Griep and I started this novel nearly a decade ago. Though it spent many months of that decade in different doneness and languishing in our computers, the darn story just kept calling us back. We finished it. And then the fine tuning began. So, many edits later, it is polished and in book form and the editing process has become such a picture for me.

If you feel like you are not at your most productive or most focused, maybe you could benefit from decluttering your physical surroundings. Picture a sink with dirty dishes piled and a countertop full of cooking implements vs a full dishwasher, empty sink and wiped down gleaming counters. I'm going to guess you feel better looking at the second scenario. Our writing spaces aren't much different. They can get crowded with tools and evidence of our creativity. 

Raise your hand if you have back copies of writing magazines in your possession. How about a pen collection? More than one coffee/tea mug sitting on your desk? Idea boards covered in sticky notes on each wall so that you can't focus on what you are currently working on?

Do you sigh with anticipation when you sit to write in your space, or sigh in frustration? Or have you abandoned your quiet corner in your own home for the public hum of a coffee shop because your corner makes you want to scream?

Do you want a space to write that is just that? Or are you better suited to laptop and couch and your "office" has become the junk room? Honestly, I have discovered tremendous freedom in getting rid of the extraneous. There is less time spent organizing and cleaning spaces because I have deleted some of the stuff that filled those places.

Curating or editing my life has left me with a knowledge of items that are my favorite—items that bring me joy. 

3 Simple Steps to Editing Your Life

1) Editing includes getting rid of extra words that don't move the story forward. They slow reading down and muddy the waters. So, in your office/life, get rid of the obvious items that have no use, especially ones you have to relocate in order to work. With every stack of mail, or every shopping bag that comes into your home you bring unnecessary clutter. 

Go through the piles you've created. One piece of paper at a time. Toss/recycle or file every bit. Chances are real good most of it can be recycled. Take a photo or scan little items like important jotted notes or receipts and get rid of the paper. Put a box or file or whatever makes sense for you to keep on your desk for the detritus of paper that comes in and repeat this process weekly or monthly if not daily.

2) Redundancy in a manuscript is annoying and sloppy. Say it once and trust the reader to get it, right? So delete duplicate items in your life. Do you really need 27 pairs of socks? 40 pens? Or 15 sticky note pads? How about writing craft books? How many do you use/refer to/need? Now, you might be thinking about clutching these to your chest and whimpering. But think about the value they might have in someone else's life. What would you have given for a solid how-to-write book when starting out?

3) Lack of clarity in writing is death to your story. If the story is not clearly communicated you have not done your job. In life, lack of clarity can easily happen when you have too much stuff. White space is important in your area of creation. The bulletin boards around the office with little stickies are a useful tool, but if you still have three books worth of pictures and stickies on finished novels or way future projects how can you find what you are currently focused on? 

What can you do to minimize the visual clutter? Maybe transcribe all the notes onto a couple of index cards and file. Or take everything down, keep it in order and put it in a file until you need it. Do you have too many inspirational signs or pictures or collectibles around your desk? Gift friends with meaningful ones that you are ready to let go of to add more white space to your writing nook. How about candles or cozy items that have multiplied like bunny rabbits? Pick your favorites, put others elsewhere or out of the house and see if you don't feel like you can breathe a little deeper. 

Our muses are finicky enough. Don’t hide your inspiration behind piles of unnecessaries.

Kelly Klepfer had ambitions to graduate from the school of life quite awhile ago, but alas . . . she still attends and is tested regularly. Her co-authored cozy/quirky mystery, Out of the Frying Pan, is the culmination of several of the failed/passed tests. Kelly, though she lives with her husband, two Beagles and two hedgehogs in Iowa, can be found at Novel Rocket, Novel Reviews, Scrambled Dregs, Modern Day Mishaps, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter with flashes of brilliance (usually quotes), randomocities, and learned life lessons. Zula and Fern Hopkins and their shenanigans can be found at Zu-fer where you always get more than you bargained for. 

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Sibella Giorello ~ Hotel Writing

Sibella Giorello grew up in the mountains of Alaska admiring the beauty and nature that surrounded her. She majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts hoping to learn more about the landscape she loved back home. From there Sibella followed a winding path, much like the motorcycle ride she took across the country, which led to her true love, journalism. 

She found herself in Seattle writing for rock-n-roll magazine and earned a journalism degree from the University of Washington before heading south to the land of great stories. In Virginia, Sibella became a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was there she also met her husband and would hear Jesus whispering her name at a tent revival.

Sibella started writing about Raleigh Harmon as a way to keep her love of story-telling alive while staying at home with her young sons. As a journalist and author, her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. The Stones Cry Out, the first Raleigh Harmon novel, won a Christy award for debut novel in 2008. Sibella now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.

Her latest release is The Stars Shine Bright. Learn more about the Raleigh Harmon series here. 

Visit Sibella Giorello and at  Facebook or Twitter. 

Hotel Writing

Like most women writers, I've got a long list of obligations that bump writing into last place.

Writing -- and getting a haircut. Both tied for last place.

First place goes to wife and mom, quickly followed by cook/chauffeur/maid/
Marine Corps drill instructor.

I'm not complaining because despite the totem pole that puts writing at ground level, I managed to publish five novels in about as many years. Remember what Ginger Rogers said about doing everything Fred Astaire did only backwards and in high heels?

And she was the better dancer for it.

The same goes with women writers. We learn field-tested tactics. One of my best  writing strategies was rising before dawn and churning out as many words as possible before people (read: guys) started asking about breakfast and clean socks.

That system worked. And it's still my daily routine.

But recently I discovered another powerful tactic: Hotels.

With blessings from my sainted husband and sons, I booked a room at a favorite hotel ninety-minutes from home. The distance seemed ideal: Far enough to get away, close enough that if the whole experiment blew up I could zip home and re-set the alarm clock for 4 a.m.

But the experiment worked.

And how.

In four days of hotel writing, I produced with 40,000 words.

That number is not a typo. I double-and-triple checked the word-count, since that's normally what I produce in one month. This will come as a huge shock to everyone everywhere, but your productivity really rises when you're not doing laundry, cooking, or yelling to the second floor, "Your lacrosse uniform is in the second drawer on the left side in the other bureau!"

If you need to get some words on the page, I highly recommend getting away to write -- but would add some caveats. Looking back, these things were crucial for the trip's success:
 

1. Pick some place that's nice but boring. For one thing, your subconscious can relax with safety and familiarity. For another, you're less tempted to shop or ride roller coasters.

2. Don't stay at a dump even if you're trying to save money. That plan will probably backfire because fear ruins creativity. What you want is a place where you are encouraged to feel pleasantly irresponsible for what goes on outside your hotel room.

3. Upon arrival, kick the inner nag to the curb. Self-doubt is creative suicide. You're a writer--don't doubt it. Say it loud, say it proud, and refuse to listen to any interior criticisms.

4. When it comes to your productivity, don't be picky. How did 40,000 words appear in four days? I lowered the bar. My mission wasn't to produce stellar prose. It was to produce a story—warts and all—and return home for editing. Don't judge your work. Just write.

5. Place that “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob and don't remove it until you check-out. Yes, I know, after three days the maids were looking at me like I was the Unibomber's sister. But other than fresh towels, that room was for reserved for uninterrupted time pacing the carpet, talking out loud to myself and hammering on the keyboard.

6. Stock the in-room fridge with your favorite foods. Mine are black tea and brie. Whatever snacks help you write, eat them. Now is not the time to get healthy. You're not visiting a spa; you're in writing boot camp.

7. End each day with a reward. It will help motivate you for the next day's work. After writing for 12 hours, I would go a long run followed by a glorious dinner and glass of red wine at a restaurant that was all but deserted by the time I arrived. This last part was crucial because . . . .

8. You want to stay away from people. Writer Saul Bellow used to come into my aunt's restaurant in Chicago. He was always by himself. I used to think he was lonely, but now that I'm a novelist, I understand. Bellow already had too much company -- inside his head. As a fiction writer you carry around a waking dream and the nice people who feel like chatting can kill it. Be polite, but be firm. No new friends. You have good work to do.

9. If you get claustrophobic, move around the place. Mezzanines, balconies, poolside if you can write amid noise. Ask the front desk about a quiet spot. I found a cubby on the mezzanine where nobody could see me but I could see them. Ideal for describing characters taken from real life.

10. Pray. Really, this point should be at the top and bottom of the list. We're not in charge of our circumstances (though, like characters in novels, we tend to believe otherwise). Don't be afraid to ask for divine guidance. You have a lot to say and limited time to say it. And when all else fails, there's usually a Gideon's in the bedside drawer.

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