Organize your XXXX in Word Files

Organize the Outhouse of my Mind

In a fuddle this morning. Need to clean out, throw away and start new.
 "If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices." Thomas Aquinas





Finished the first draft of next novel, working title Eco Terrorist. I might call her Soothsayer, but that leads to another story further taking me off point. I am giving the book a rest for a week. Working on short fiction that needs polishing after a cold trip. Organizing and planning back at home today. The wind rocked the house something wild last night. Electric charges from the dry ions are irritating my muse. My sweet gum trees in the front in painted blaze have thrown their souls all over the canyon.  One mess of crimson, rust and magenta is in the bottom of my pool and the gutters towards the ocean.

After travelling this week to Canada I want to thank again all the wonderful people who were supportive and amazing open, giving, and participated in the performances. Poetry is alive and well. I met college students, teens, bikers, cowboys, and truck drivers who are now part of my family.

Returning to my messy mind, I ask those Santa Ana winds for solutions. Does anyone else have this stupid problem? I save a file in Word and give it a title, next I add a numerical date, but other copies of the same file duplicate as a) Backup of xyz title  and b)xyz title with similar date and c) I might have a word doc a worddocx an HTML and some other copies of the same file. I attempted to merge these ten pieces but it is frustrating to the point of crazy making. There must be a better system to organize my writing.

I want to store all the poetry and flash pieces in some easy to recall order.
There are about two hundred short stories and flash fiction pieces unpublished that I need to edit down and keep clean copies.
I also have hundreds of film clips and thousands of photographs.
I think I need a personal secretary who can live inside my computer and just talk to me when I sleep.

Time for bleach, lists, throwing away a bunch of junk and general cleanup.  I will back up all the creations into folders and put them on a seperate hard drive to open one at a time. Simplfy the work into pieces to cut copy and paste.

The photograph above is a working outhouse, I do not have one at the Wyoming ranch, but  feels like my mind today. I spare you the word (xrap) in the title.

Planning Write It Down.

It is spring time for cleaning, polishing and sharpening my pencils for great writing.


This is not my ordinary blog post. I am making it public.

With all the demands in my life, I need to write out my goals and stick to a schedule.

There are six key areas for my five year and one year plan:

Spiritual, Financial, Health, Writing, Family, and Fun.

1. Spiritual Life

I have grown closer to God by daily prayer. The rosary comforts me when doing the most menial tasks. I feel closest to Him when I am gardening. I will add ten minutes of meditation. This daily meditation is a big request. My life is packed with work, writing and raising two children alone. As the weather warms, I can sit outside and have this silent time.

2. Financial

I will monitor my stocks each morning for an hour. When I read about trends in the market, I can determine timing on buys and sells. I am not going to purchase commercial real estate or residential for three more years, as I believe the worst is not yet over. My house is upside down and I must continue to work full time. I must market my mortgage origination business to sustain my children and myself. I will keep to my budget. I need to save $ X dollars (number withheld because this is public) more for Carson’s college fund. In order to do this I need to put ten percent of my earnings a year into his accounts for the next five years. Blair’s college fund is completed. I want to purchase the video equipment she is eyeing for her possible explorations for her career. This is likely a large Christmas expense. I also want to send her to some film school this summer. I want to put the maximum into my 401k each of the coming five years.

3. Health

After surviving the big C, I need to be mindful of my health. The huge stress of the personal loss this year has worn upon my cells. I am buying organic produce. We have organic vegetables in our garden. I do not eat red meat or pork. I need to exercise six days a week. Walking, really hiking two days with my camera and three days running or something aerobic. Avoid stress, laugh at life and smile at everyone. Attitude is the key to health.

4. Writing

I want my writing to be my full time career by 2015. I will complete four more novels by that date. I will have a full time agent who assists me in marketing the work. I want to write well and reach a large audience. This entails a following of two hundred thousand. Publishing business is shrinking in these economic hard times. Art will be seen as an unnecessary commodity. My work must be general fiction, and genre specific as well. Focus on the novel, full-length work. I enjoy short fiction and it is fun to write flash but there is no financial market for poetry. I am expanding my reach in social networking, but it is slow brick building. Keep positive, write 4000 words a day. Do not whine about editing.

5. Keep my children healthy and learning. Teach them by example. Lead them to great things. Show them beauty in the sky. Talk about love and show everyone kindness. Take care of my Mom, she is getting frail. Spend time listening to my Mom. Talk with my siblings who I love so very much. Be helpful to those I hold dear.

6. Walk to the beach more and get in the water- this combines a couple goals. Light the fire at night and the Jacuzzi to hear the ocean with the lights all off. Joke with my children. Enjoy the people at work. Share some baked things I make with the office. Build the team at the office to be working together. Vacation plans in the US to visit independent bookstores. Get together with friends who are happy. In the past I did volunteer projects and fundraising for fun, I am not going to focus on this going forward. I am running an idea in my head to invite authors to come stay a weekend and brainstorm edit and help each other. I have the blessing of a beautiful home and amazing location, I can share that alone as a gift. Be creative in all things. Blair and I bought all the parts to make a chandelier out of Kerr jars, and the wine bottle wind chimes. Make things and give them to others. Paint, take photographs, cut flowers from the garden and put them in the house and give them to others. Laugh much more.