Messy Desk or Clean Desk

Do you keep a messy or a clean desk? Several months ago members of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America submitted pictures of their writing work space for the monthly newsletter. As could be expected, some of us had messy desks and some had clean desks. When I write, I fall in between. I keep stacks of manila folders on my desk—on the right side for current writing projects and on the left side for other projects. I like to keep the space in the middle of my desk neat. Even in this electronic age, I still keep manila folders particularly for research subjects. Since I write about older characters, I have folders on aging, memory, different locations I’ve visited that I use in my mystery novels, conferences, material for speeches, etc. When I find interesting articles in the newspaper, I clip them and drop them in the particular folder. I have a file cabinet with drawers of manila folders. I keep manuscripts, synopses, blurbs, etc. on the computer. I’m not ready to forgo paper yet. I organize linearly with my folders. As opposed to this form of organization, a co-worker from my business days always had a huge mound of paper on his desk. I thought he was disorganized until I watched him pull requested documents out of the mound with no effort. He was a spatial organizer and knew exactly where he had placed things in his three-dimensional file. So whatever works for you, go for it.