The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Manuscript)

Last night I had the pleasure of hearing the Marie Kondo speak at the Japan Society. For those of you who haven't heard of the KonMari Method, in a nutshell it's about decluttering your home and keeping the things that spark joy.

After spending the morning re-organizing and decluttering my closet, I turned to my bookshelf. "Does this book spark joy?" I asked myself over and over. I think for me, tossing out clothing and jewelry to Goodwill's a lot easier than tossing out my books. I so love returning to a good story even years later, that I found myself keeping just about everything!

So while my shelf's still as full and crowded as ever, my closet's a bit neater. Feeling energized by th morning's pursuits, I sat down to tackle my daily 2,000 words and thought about how I might apply the KonMari method to my writing...later.

I say later because I'm working on the first draft of something right now. And first draft in LizLim world basically means crap draft = write things on paper and hope they make sense. KonMari isn't even going to come in until Draft 3 or 4. But I did start thinking about the MS I'm polishing right now. Every word should "spark joy." Every word should be necessary, or else I'm donating it to Goodwill.

Marie says "Once you learn to choose your belongings properly, you will be left with only the amount that fits perfectly in the space you own."

The same can be said of words in a tightly crafted book, I'd say. Something to chew on.