Writer-Brain and the Messy Desk

My editor suggested that I describe my writing environment.  “Send a picture of your desk,” she said.   Little did she know what she’d get: an epic mess.  It looks like every desk I’ve ever worked on…and it’s an example of writer-brain.

My mother was an engineer, with a very organized engineer-mind.  Her desks, drawers, filing cabinets, closets, and so on were always perfectly neat and organized.  She often worked on multiple projects at once, and every one had its own perfectly organized workspace and storage.

Early on it became obvious that I had not inherited her engineer-brain.   “You can’t possibly do any work on such a messy desk,” my mother pronounced many times in my childhood, glaring at my bedroom desk covered with pens, pencils, papers, crayons, favorite rocks, special leaves, a cardinal feather, a string of beads…all forming a sort of geological formation with strata and faults and alluvial fans sliding off to the floor.  “It’s too distracting,” she said.

I tried–honestly, I tried–but I have writer-brain, not engineer-brain.  Put me at a perfectly empty clean desk for just five minutes–a note pad, one pencil, room for my laptop–and soon there’ll be a litter of notes, doodles, and anything loose in the room that I can pile on.  That clean, uncluttered desktop is a distraction for writer-brain…it cries out for something.  And what it needs is–against all engineer-brain logic–a mess.

I work best in conditions that drove my engineer-brained mother to distraction.  Sometimes the mess bothers me–I can’t find something I need.  But mostly it’s comforting, a mess full of shapes and colors and textures and memories that spark ideas.  The contents of the mess change from time to time but the structure remains.

Not all writers work well in mess.  But those of us who thrive in it must throw off the shackles of guilt induced by the anti-clutter faction so we can do our work.   Yes, Mother, I can work in this mess.

Elizabeth’s editor sez: For proof that great books can issue from such an environment, read this sample chapter from Kings of the North, which goes on sale March 22 from Del Rey.