Getting Rid of the Clutter

Hi, everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve posted here on The Walrus and the Carpenter blog. If you read my Christian inspiration blog or follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I’ve been recuperating from surgery. Finally, I’m back to a normal schedule, and I’m tackling all the clutter that’s accumulated in the past few months.


Clutter distracts me from writing. I like my workspace clean and my bookshelves covered. That’s right, muslin curtains hang in front of my bookshelves because looking at the spines of all those books is too darn distracting. Any sort of physical clutter switches my brain from writing to the things I have to do. Some writers thrive in a chaotic environment. I prefer to keep clutter to a bare minimum. This week’s mission was sorting through a stack of papers that I'd piled near my workspace and putting away several boxes of book samples that arrived while I was sick.

Then there’s emotional clutter, all the unresolved mental stuff rattling around in my head. I had cancer. It’s gone now, but still my brain is swimming with thoughts of that and whether I’ll remain cancer free. Medical bills cause emotional clutter as does finding work and focusing on things in my life that I want to change. Phone calls, email messages and snail mail all contribute to emotional clutter. I can’t throw a cover over it, but I've found that it helps to change my writing venue. I like to get in my car and drive to a quiet place to write. (Read more about my quest to find the perfect place here.) I’ve been working on a book about my experience with uterine cancer, and so far, most of what I’ve written has happened at the lakefront and not in my home office.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Albert Einstein’s Three Rules of Work. He said, “Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” I’m hanging onto those words as I emerge from the clutter of the past several months. It’s been a rough road, but I’m moving forward with the help of simplicity, harmony and the hope of new opportunities.

I’d love to know how you deal with the physical and emotional clutter in your life. How does it affect your writing? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Finding a Mini-Writing Retreat

Kathryn Haueisen Cashen wrote an article recently for Writer’s Digest called “Create Your Own Mini-Writing Retreat.” She defines a mini-retreat as a quiet place where you can write uninterrupted for a short period of time. It’s a great idea. I sometimes get away from my home office to write in my car near the lake, but after reading the article, I decided to broaden my options and write at someplace new each week. But where?

I began the venue quest a few blocks from home at a McDonald’s restaurant. It was just before 8 a.m., and I ordered an Egg McMuffin and a large hazelnut iced coffee. (Those things are huge! Have you tried one?) I settled into a booth in the back near the restrooms, I booted the laptop and started to write. A Mickey D’s employee showed up with a broom. “Could you lift your feet, please?” she asked. “I’d like to get at those.” She pointed. I looked down at my moccasin-clad feet and realized that they were planted on a handful of smooshed, catsup-covered fries. “So, what are you writing?” She handed me some napkins so I could wipe the catsup off my shoes. She said she was a poet and suggested that maybe I could help her get published. Just then, a school bus loaded with kids on a field trip showed up. Everyone needed to use the restrooms, and my mini-writing retreat flooded with the sounds of raucous teenaged chatter and constant flushing. Not what I had in mind for quiet creativity, so I moved on to Plan B, the public library.

The third floor of the library is the quiet floor. There’s not much up there except old reference books and some nice, comfy reading sofas. It was still early, and I was the only one there. Perfect! I chose a sofa near a window and started to write. I heard the elevator door open. Coughing. More like retching. It was heading toward me. Did I have my cell phone on and could I grab it fast if I needed to? The cougher was a greasy-haired, bearded guy who smelled like cheap bourbon. His clothes looked, well, let’s just say they looked slept in. “You gonna be here long?” He eyed my sofa which I decided was his. "I don’t think so,” I heard myself say. He stared at me with glassy eyes. “I’m just packing up,” I added, already stuffing my laptop into its bag. I got out of there in a big hurry. So much for Plan B.

Plan C was the local nature preserve. I wasn’t dressed for hiking, but I knew about a path in the woods that led to a quiet picnic table near a stream. I walked the quarter of a mile, and before long, I was writing peacefully surrounded by all kinds of nature. Now, anyone who knows me would tell you that I’m a nature nut. All I need to see is the edge of an unfamiliar fleeting feather, and I’m off on a mission to find out not only what kind of bird it is, but also the sound of its call, its summer and winter habitats and its migration schedule. There were plenty of birds in my retreat spot, and I needed to get up close and personal with and Google all of them. I didn’t get much writing accomplished, but I came away proud of myself for seeing several White-winged Crossbills.

So, here I am in my home office writing a blog post. I haven’t given up searching for an ideal, or even so-so, place for a mini-writing retreat. I’ll try again next week. Maybe then I’ll go to the new trout hatchery or the "Streets of Yesteryear" exhibit at the historical museum. The possibilities for distraction there are endless, but sometimes it’s distractions that breed ideas for great creative writing.

Where would you like to write?