The Writer's Guide to Getting Organized: Take Control of Your Creative Life 10 Minutes at a Time

by Lynn Johnston

Writers are different. We don't always think in straight lines. We take leaps of logic, we think metaphorically, and we know in order to make something beautiful, you might also have to make a mess.

You've probably tried to adopt at least one organizing system already. Maybe it was in a bestselling book written by someone in a suit. Or maybe it was the system that works for your brother the accountant or your naturally-neat coworker. Whatever system you tried, it was probably very logical and made total sense, until you tried to force yourself to fit into it.

Did you come to the conclusion that there's something wrong with you? That you're naturally disorganized? That creativity and organization can't coexist?

First the good news: you're not broken, and it is possible to be creative and organized at the same time.

Any functional system of organization for writers must be designed around the writing process. And every writer's process is a little bit different.

This book will show you how to analyze your writing process and set up your tools and resources in an way that feels natural and supports you in being more creatively successful.

(Originally published under the title, The Kaizen Plan for Organized Authors.)

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2011

Reviews

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are passionate about organizing, filing, decluttering and Kaizen plans, you may find this book fascinating. I'm not, so for me it was moderately boring. It contained some sane advice, but no revelations, and very little new information. The contents could be summed up as: you should be organized because it saves time and headache for your future self ; make plans; write things down; backup. I personally don't need to be told for half an hour about the intimate details of the author's backup procedures.The good thing is that the book is short, so I can't blame it for wasting a considerable amount of time with little usage.

[Samantha Macdouglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writers tend to be right brained folk and the idea of getting the left brain to cooperate long enough to get organized can be torture. Ms. Johnston breaks the process down and makes it easy to do. She takes the fear out of organization and helps even the most right brained writer take control of their creative life.

This book is wonderful and very easy to understand. It's like a breath of fresh air and really makes getting organized with your writing completely manageable.

[Linda Brighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good way to get organized

Many of the interesting steps provided will take me days if not weeks to do, most of them I arty know has to be done but here's an organized way of doing it. It's a Kaizen plan for writers.