Mind the Clutter
One writer’s clutter is another writer’s inspiration.
MY clutter is the secular world calling for my attention: bills, investment decisions, lists of things we need, chores to do, birthday cards to buy. I wrote here recently that I need to clear something off my secular list before I can feel free to write. Still true.
To keep clutter from piling up, a wise person once wrote to “touch it once.” Open that letter, email, bill, and answer it NOW. Don’t wait, get it out of your hair. Don’t let it become over ripe in a pile on your desk.
That’s great advice I have trouble performing. Shakespeare said it in Merchant of Venice (Act 1, Scene 2) “If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”
But I digress. What do you expect from an English teacher with a history background?
I don’t know that all writers would agree with me about clutter. Ray Bradbury had at least two places he wrote once he became a fulltime writer. One was a neat clean office down by Venice Beach. The other was a big space in his basement for writing with files full of published and unpublished stories. The walls and any flat spaces were congested with …stuff. He said he kept trinkets, posters, toys, ticket stubs and just let them sit out. They inspired him, prompted ideas. They encouraged his mind to wander.
But notice the difference between his clutter and mine. His demanded nothing of him. Mine are problems calling out for attention. His tickled his mind. Mine tackle mine.
What does your clutter do for you?
