How Abject Chaos Can Make You A Better Writer

With all the emphasis on organization and routine, the hot messes among us may feel left out. Here’s why writers should embrace the mess, instead.

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If I had to describe my outlining and drafting processes in a single phrase, I would call them “determined disasters.” The fact that most of my work blossoms from a single file labeled Brain Dump is probably rather telling.

But hey — if it works, it works, right?

There’s been so much written on the topic of organization for writers, with lots of intelligent and productive people spinning lovely images of functional outlines, productive drafts, and a polished editing process.

A veritable Eden for the wayward wordsmith, and a convincing incentive to become very hard on yourself when you fail to reach those high productivity standards.

I have tried many of the popular methods, adapting them to my needs as I went, and the result has been…well.

Frankenstein’s monster was functional, wasn’t he?

The truth is, your writing strategy doesn’t need to be pretty. It doesn’t even have to make sense. It just has to work — i.e., result in you, the writer, writing. And if your process…