Writing, Creating Functional Space

The places I write vary depending on the week, time of day, season of life I’m in, etc. Knowing this, I try to be flexible about my spaces and how they work for me. Sometimes though, I have to step back from the writing and address whatever place I’ve landed in to create a more functional space.

Last week I needed to take time to address my planning needs. I am a planner and I use my planning supplies as an essential tool to reach my goals, writing and otherwise. The past five months or so my planning supplies have scattered as I made my move from ‘this system currently isn’t working for me’ to ‘THIS is the system I need.’ Between being sick longer than I expected to this month to introducing a new goal the month before, I had to take some time to separate my personal information and goals from my writing/work information and goals. I’d been dancing between planners, keeping some information in one and some in another and finally landed on what goes where. Once I decided that, I was able to dive into separating and organizing all of the supplies I had into specific bins based on type, function, and size. Getting everything corralled back onto my cart also helped me to see exactly what I have and what I need. From there I put together one planner for personal goals and information and then one for work/writing goals and information. Having it all put together means that space is once again organized and it’s much easier for me to work when I go there.

Moving from that space to the couch and my car also makes working at both places much easy. I’m able to grab that exact system I need for whatever I’m putting my energy towards. I’m also able to much more easily get into a working mindset when I’m back there because I’m not eating any energy trying to find what I need. It is planner launch season in the land of personal planning across various social media platforms for one of the companies I order from, which definitely motivated my need to get this particular task done. It did mean I didn’t get into my writing last week, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking of my story. I’ve been thinking about the sisters as they stand now, on the brink of this critical moment, and then moving into the next narrator’s point-of-view. As I analyze it from different angles and from one sister looking to the other, it’s made me wonder about their relationship even more. Much of this story is about what they do to protect each other and how they make decisions about what to share and not share with each other. This critical moment is going to change the very essence of how they live around each other and what they do for each other. Taking my time to really understand it is important and I’m glad I’m doing just that.

In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.

With you in words, Nikole